likening
"likening" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“likening” is uncommon English (frequency #58,150 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,150
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act by which things are likened; a comparison.
Corpus desk
Index EN-likening · likening · English
likening · rank #58,150 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,150
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH likenesses
Nearest frequency peer: likenesses (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “likening”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- leptin
leptin
41,855 corpus weight
- libtard
libtard
41,853 corpus weight
- likenesses
likenesses
41,852 corpus weight
- likening
likening
41,851 corpus weight
- liquefaction
liquefaction
41,850 corpus weight
- Lisburn
Lisburn
41,849 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “likening” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | likening |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #58,150 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “likening” in English
Rare enough to double-check
likening is uncommon English at frequency #58,150 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act by which things are likened; a comparison.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for likening, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is likening, spelled L-I-K-E-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act by which things are likened; a comparison.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how likening appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I sometimes, in musing mood, find myself making spontaneous likenings of inanimate to animate nature, comparing the qualities of things to the qualities of men[…]
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "likening", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).