hesitating
/ˈhɛzɪteɪtɪŋ/
"hesitating" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hesitating” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #40,734 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #40,734
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of hesitate
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 | hesitating |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈhɛzɪteɪtɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #40,734 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hesitating” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hesitating is 10 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɛzɪteɪtɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #40,734 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of hesitate".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for hesitating, with forms such as "ehsitating", "heistating", and "hesiatting". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "hesitation", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is hesitating, spelled H-E-S-I-T-A-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of hesitate
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehsitating,heistating,hesiatting,hesitaitng,hesitatign,hesitatingg,hesitatinng,hesitatnig,hesitatting,hesittaing,hesittating,hessitating,hestiating,hhesitating,hseitating
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hesitating - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “hesitating”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-S-I-T-A-T-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɛzɪteɪtɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hesitation” - see the side-by-side comparison. hesitating vs hesitation
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.