softening
"softening" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“softening” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,929 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #25,929
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of soften
| 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) |
Where “softening” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for softening is 9 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #25,929 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 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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Using “softening”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-O-F-T-E-N-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.