mothering
"mothering" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mothering” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,080 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,080
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The nurturing of a child by its mother.
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 | mothering |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #46,080 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mothering” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mothering is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #46,080 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for mothering, with forms such as "mmothering", "mohtering", and "motehring". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "motoring", "muttering", "metering", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: By surface analysis, mother + -ing. The correct English form is mothering, spelled M-O-T-H-E-R-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The nurturing of a child by its mother.
- 2The protective behavior of a mother towards her child.
- 3Nurturing or protective behavior reminiscent of that performed by a literal mother.
- 4Clipping of a-mothering (“practice of visiting one's literal or figurative mother or mother church”).
Etymology
By surface analysis, mother + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmothering,mohtering,motehring,motheirng,motherign,motheringg,motherinng,mothernig,motherring,mothhering,mothreing,motthering,mtohering,omthering
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mothering - 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 “mothering”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-T-H-E-R-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “motoring” - see the side-by-side comparison. mothering vs motoring
- 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.