living
/ˈlɪvɪŋ/
"living" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“living” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #503 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #503
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle of live
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 | living |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlɪvɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #503 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “living” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for living is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɪvɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #503 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle of live".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for living, with forms such as "ilving", "liivng", and "livign". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "lying", "Lovin", "losing", 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 livynge, libbyng, livinde, livand, livende, libbinde, libbende, from Old English lifiġende, lifiende, libbende, from Proto-West Germanic *libbjandī, from Proto-Germanic *libjandz (“living”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *libjaną … The correct English form is living, spelled L-I-V-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle of live
Etymology
From Middle English livynge, libbyng, livinde, livand, livende, libbinde, libbende, from Old English lifiġende, lifiende, libbende, from Proto-West Germanic *libbjandī, from Proto-Germanic *libjandz (“living”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), equivalent to live + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian libbend (“living”), Dutch levend (“living”), German lebend (“living”), Swedish levande (“living”), Icelandic lifandi (“living”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilving,liivng,livign,livingg,livinng,livnig,livving,lliving,lviing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of living - 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
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Using “living”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-V-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɪvɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lying” - see the side-by-side comparison. living vs lying
- 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.