promising
/ˈpɹɑmɪsɪŋ/
"promising" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“promising” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,001 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #6,001
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Showing promise, and likely to develop in a desirable fashion.
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 | promising |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpɹɑmɪsɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #6,001 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “promising” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for promising is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɑmɪsɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,001 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 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 promising, with forms such as "pormising", "ppromising", and "prmoising". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "providing", "promoting", "prompting", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is promising, spelled P-R-O-M-I-S-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Showing promise, and likely to develop in a desirable fashion.
- 2Encouraging and inspiring confidence.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pormising,ppromising,prmoising,proimsing,promiisng,promisign,promisingg,promisinng,promisnig,promissing,prommising,promsiing,prromising,rpomising
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of promising - 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 “promising”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-O-M-I-S-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹɑmɪsɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “providing” - see the side-by-side comparison. promising vs providing
- 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.