softening
"softening" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“softening” has 14 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #25,929. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #25,929
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of soften
Corpus desk
Index EN-softening · softening · English
softening · rank #25,929 · 14 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-MID #25,929
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-HIGH 14 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Simons
Nearest frequency peer: Simons (-2 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 “softening”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Siam
Siam
74,075 corpus weight
- Simons
Simons
74,074 corpus weight
- softening
softening
74,072 corpus weight
- soybean
soybean
74,070 corpus weight
- splashing
splashing
74,069 corpus weight
- standardiza…
standardization
74,068 corpus weight
What this shows “softening” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | softening |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #25,929 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “softening”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 14 spelling variants around softening, averb. Corpus frequency is #25,929 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of soften".
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for softening, with forms such as "osftening", "sfotening", and "sofetning". 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. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English softenynge, softynand, equivalent to soften + -ing. The correct English form is softening, spelled S-O-F-T-E-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of soften
Etymology
From Middle English softenynge, softynand, equivalent to soften + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- osftening
- sfotening
- sofetning
- sofftening
- softeinng
- softenign
- softeningg
- softeninng
- softennig
- softenning
- softneing
- softtening
- sotfening
- ssoftening
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of softening - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "softening", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).