spying
/ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/
"spying" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spying” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,145. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,145
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of spy
Corpus desk
Index EN-spying · spying · English
spying · rank #12,145 · 10 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,145
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH speedy
Nearest frequency peer: speedy (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “spying”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- slash
slash
87,859 corpus weight
- spaghetti
spaghetti
87,858 corpus weight
- speedy
speedy
87,857 corpus weight
- spying
spying
87,856 corpus weight
- staging
staging
87,855 corpus weight
- standpoint
standpoint
87,854 corpus weight
What this shows “spying” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | spying |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,145 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spying”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around spying (IPA /ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #12,145 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of spy".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for spying, with forms such as "psying", "spiyng", and "sppying". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "swing", "sting", "suing", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From spy + -ing. The correct English form is spying, spelled S-P-Y-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of spy
Etymology
From spy + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- psying
- spiyng
- sppying
- spyign
- spyingg
- spyinng
- spynig
- spyying
- sspying
- syping
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spying - 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 "spying", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).