rowing
/ˈɹoʊɪŋ/
"rowing" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rowing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,469 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #17,469
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of row (“propel with oars”)
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 | rowing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɹoʊɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,469 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rowing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rowing is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹoʊɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,469 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of row (“propel with oars”)".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for rowing, with forms such as "orwing", "roiwng", and "rowign". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ruling", "rowling", "ring", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: By surface analysis, row + -ing. The correct English form is rowing, spelled R-O-W-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of row (“propel with oars”)
Etymology
By surface analysis, row + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: orwing,roiwng,rowign,rowingg,rowinng,rownig,rowwing,rrowing,rwoing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rowing - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “rowing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-O-W-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹoʊɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ruling” - see the side-by-side comparison. rowing vs ruling
- 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.