looking
/ˈlʊkɪŋ/
"looking" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“looking” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #242 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #242
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of look
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 | looking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlʊkɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #242 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “looking” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for looking is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlʊkɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #242 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for looking, with forms such as "llooking", "loking", and "lokoing". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "losing", "loving", "loring", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lokynge, from earlier lokinde, lokende, from Old English lōciende, present participle of Old English lōcian (“to look”), equivalent to look + -ing. The correct English form is looking, spelled L-O-O-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of look
- 2as the last part of compound adjectives: relating to or having the appearance of.
Etymology
From Middle English lokynge, from earlier lokinde, lokende, from Old English lōciende, present participle of Old English lōcian (“to look”), equivalent to look + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: llooking,loking,lokoing,looikng,lookign,lookingg,lookinng,lookking,looknig,oloking
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of looking - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “looking”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-O-K-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlʊkɪŋ/ (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. looking 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.