sleeping
/ˈsliːpɪŋ/
"sleeping" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sleeping” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,702. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #2,702
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of sleep
Corpus desk
Index EN-sleeping · sleeping · English
sleeping · rank #2,702 · 12 variants · 15 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,702
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 15 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH severe
Nearest frequency peer: severe (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sleeping”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- revolution
revolution
97,302 corpus weight
- rooms
rooms
97,301 corpus weight
- severe
severe
97,300 corpus weight
- sleeping
sleeping
97,299 corpus weight
- suppose
suppose
97,298 corpus weight
- tool
tool
97,297 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sleeping” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | sleeping |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈsliːpɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,702 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sleeping” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around sleeping (IPA /ˈsliːpɪŋ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #2,702 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of sleep".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for sleeping, with forms such as "lseeping", "seleping", and "sleeipng". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "sloping", "stepping", "steering", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is sleeping, spelled S-L-E-E-P-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of sleep
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sleeping appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lseeping
- seleping
- sleeipng
- sleepign
- sleepingg
- sleepinng
- sleepnig
- sleepping
- slepeing
- sleping
- slleeping
- ssleeping
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sleeping - 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.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sleeping"?
What does "sleeping" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sleeping"?
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What language does "sleeping" come from?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sleeping", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "sleeping". Here's where to go from here.
- "sleeping" maps to 15 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "sloping". View pair
- 12 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #2,702 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.