drifting
/ˈdɹɪftɪŋ/
"drifting" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drifting” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #13,909. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #13,909
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Moving aimlessly or at the mercy of external forces.
Corpus desk
Index EN-drifting · drifting · English
drifting · rank #13,909 · 13 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,909
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH edged
Nearest frequency peer: edged (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “drifting”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- draining
draining
86,095 corpus weight
- drains
drains
86,094 corpus weight
- drifting
drifting
86,092 corpus weight
- edged
edged
86,091 corpus weight
- educator
educator
86,090 corpus weight
- entitlement
entitlement
86,089 corpus weight
What this shows “drifting” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | drifting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈdɹɪftɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,909 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “drifting”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around drifting (IPA /ˈdɹɪftɪŋ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #13,909 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for drifting, with forms such as "ddrifting", "dirfting", and "drfiting". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "driving", "drinking", "drilling", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is drifting, spelled D-R-I-F-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Moving aimlessly or at the mercy of external forces.
- 2Without direction, focus, or goal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how drifting appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The drifting seaweed went wherever the currents carried it.
[Lionel] Johnson was stern by nature, strong by intellect, and always, I think, deliberately picked his company, but [Ernest] Dowson seemed gentle, affectionate, drifting.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ddrifting
- dirfting
- drfiting
- driffting
- drifitng
- driftign
- driftingg
- driftinng
- driftnig
- driftting
- dritfing
- drrifting
- rdifting
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of drifting - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "drifting", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).