going
/ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/
"going" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“going” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #122. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #122
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of go
Corpus desk
Index EN-going · going · English
going · rank #122 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #122
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH too
Nearest frequency peer: too (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “going”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- being
being
99,882 corpus weight
- day
day
99,881 corpus weight
- too
too
99,880 corpus weight
- going
going
99,879 corpus weight
- before
before
99,878 corpus weight
- off
off
99,877 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “going” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | going |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #122 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “going” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around going (IPA /ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #122 among 2,313 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for going, with forms such as "ggoing", "giong", and "goign". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gone", "gown", "grin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanen… The correct English form is going, spelled G-O-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of go
- 2Attending or visiting (a stated event, place, etc.) habitually or regularly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how going appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I'm afraid I must be going.
theatre-going, church-going, movie-going
Etymology
Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”). Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go + -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ggoing
- giong
- goign
- goingg
- goinng
- gonig
- oging
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of going - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
How do you spell "going"?
What does "going" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "going", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "going". Here's where to go from here.
- "going" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "gone". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #122 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "G" letter cohort. G–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.