longing
/ˈlɒŋɪŋ/
"longing" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“longing” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #14,989. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #14,989
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of long
Corpus desk
Index EN-longing · longing · English
longing · rank #14,989 · 11 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #14,989
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH locomotive
Nearest frequency peer: locomotive (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “longing”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Lithuania
Lithuania
85,015 corpus weight
- litre
litre
85,014 corpus weight
- locomotive
locomotive
85,013 corpus weight
- longing
longing
85,012 corpus weight
- LSU
LSU
85,011 corpus weight
- mailed
mailed
85,010 corpus weight
What this shows “longing” 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 | longing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #14,989 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “longing”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around longing (IPA /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #14,989 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of long".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for longing, with forms such as "llonging", "lnoging", and "logning". 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, "losing", "loving", "loring", 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 longynge, langynge, langand, from Old English langiende, from Proto-Germanic *langōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long + -ing (present participle ending). The correct English form is longing, spelled L-O-N-G-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of long
Etymology
From Middle English longynge, langynge, langand, from Old English langiende, from Proto-Germanic *langōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long + -ing (present participle ending).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- llonging
- lnoging
- logning
- longging
- longign
- longingg
- longinng
- longnig
- lonigng
- lonnging
- olnging
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of longing - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "longing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).