policing

verb

"policing" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“policing” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,658. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,658
frequency rank, English
46,516
“P” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of police

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

policing vs pricing
75% similar
policing vs placing
75% similar
policing vs policies
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for policing
PropertyValue
Headwordpolicing
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Frequency rank#12,658
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “policing” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). policing lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around policing, averb. Corpus frequency is #12,658 among 46,516 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of police".

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for policing, with forms such as "oplicing", "ploicing", and "poilcing". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "pricing", "placing", "policies", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is policing, spelled P-O-L-I-C-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of police

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oplicing
  • ploicing
  • poilcing
  • polciing
  • policcing
  • policign
  • policingg
  • policinng
  • policnig
  • poliicng
  • pollicing
  • ppolicing

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of policing - 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.

oplicing2ploicing2poilcing2polciing2policcing1policign2policingg1policinng1
Edit distance from "policing"

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

How do you spell "policing"?
"policing" is spelled P-O-L-I-C-I-N-G.
What does "policing" mean?
As a verb, "policing" means: present participle and gerund of police
What words are commonly confused with "policing"?
"policing" is commonly confused with "pricing", "placing", "policies". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "policing" come from?
"policing" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “policing”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-O-L-I-C-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “pricing” - see the side-by-side comparison. policing vs pricing
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Same frequency band

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list