shadowing
/ˈʃædəʊɪŋ/
"shadowing" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shadowing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #35,511 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #35,511
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The effect of being shadowed (in the sense of blocked), as from a light source or radio transmission.
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 | shadowing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃædəʊɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #35,511 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shadowing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shadowing is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃædəʊɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,511 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 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 shadowing, with forms such as "hsadowing", "sahdowing", and "shaddowing". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "showing", "shading", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From shadow (verb) + -ing (suffix forming nouns denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action; or forming present participles of verbs). The correct English form is shadowing, spelled S-H-A-D-O-W-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The effect of being shadowed (in the sense of blocked), as from a light source or radio transmission.
- 2The situation where a person repeats speech immediately as they hear it (usually through earphones).
- 3Secretly or discreetly tracking or following someone, keeping under surveillance.
- 4A faint representation; an adumbration.
- 5The technique of copying ROM contents to RAM to allow for shorter access times. The ROM chip is then disabled while the initialized memory locations are switched in on the same block of addresses.
- 6A work experience option where students learn about a job by walking through the work day as a shadow to a competent worker.
Etymology
From shadow (verb) + -ing (suffix forming nouns denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action; or forming present participles of verbs).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsadowing,sahdowing,shaddowing,shadoiwng,shadowign,shadowingg,shadowinng,shadownig,shadowwing,shadwoing,shaodwing,shdaowing,shhadowing,sshadowing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shadowing - 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 “shadowing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-D-O-W-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃædəʊɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “showing” - see the side-by-side comparison. shadowing vs showing
- 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.