longing
/ˈlɒŋɪŋ/
"longing" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“longing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,989 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #14,989
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of long
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) |
Where “longing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for longing is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,989 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 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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Using “longing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-N-G-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “losing” - see the side-by-side comparison. longing vs losing
- 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.