policing

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"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
4,417
“P” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of police

Corpus desk

Index EN-policing · policing · English

policing · rank #12,658 · 12 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,658
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH pointer

Nearest frequency peer: pointer (-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 “policing”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “policing” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

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)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “policing”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).policinglands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “pointer” (#12,657), “predicting” (#12,659), “pillars” (#12,656). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “policing” is #12,658. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around policing, averb. Corpus frequency is #12,658 among 4,417 “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

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how policing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "policing", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pavilion#12,652militant#12,643midfield#12,642sabotage#12,674

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

journeys12 variantsSyracuse12 variantsGuatemala12 variantsfreedoms12 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list