fleeting
/ˈfliːtɪŋ/
"fleeting" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fleeting” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #19,087. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #19,087
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Passing quickly; of short duration.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fleeting · fleeting · English
fleeting · rank #19,087 · 12 variants · 10 confusables
- FREQ-MID #19,087
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fil
Nearest frequency peer: fil (-2 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 “fleeting”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- fag
fag
80,918 corpus weight
- favours
favours
80,917 corpus weight
- fil
fil
80,916 corpus weight
- fleeting
fleeting
80,914 corpus weight
- forfeit
forfeit
80,912 corpus weight
- forging
forging
80,911 corpus weight
What this shows “fleeting” 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 | fleeting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfliːtɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #19,087 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “fleeting”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around fleeting (IPA /ˈfliːtɪŋ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #19,087 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for fleeting, with forms such as "feleting", "ffleeting", and "fleeitng". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "Fleming", "freeing", "flexing", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet + -ing. The correct English form is fleeting, spelled F-L-E-E-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Passing quickly; of short duration.
- 2That which flees, especially quickly; fugitive.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fleeting appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Architecture, sculpture, painting are static arts. Even in literature "our flying minds," as George Meredith says, cannot contain protracted description. It is so; for from sequences of words they must assemble all the details in one simultaneous impression. But moments of fleeting beauty too transient to be caught by any means less swift than light itsel…
As they passed, accelerating, on to the bridge and felt the first bite of the incline beyond, one had a fleeting glimpse of driver and fireman, illumined as by the fires of hell, the one tugging at the regulator handle, the other shovelling for dear life.
Etymology
From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet + -ing.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- feleting
- ffleeting
- fleeitng
- fleetign
- fleetingg
- fleetinng
- fleetnig
- fleetting
- fleteing
- fleting
- flleeting
- lfeeting
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fleeting - 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 "fleeting", 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 (12 here; floor ≥5).