straining
"straining" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“straining” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #21,950 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,950
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act by which one strains. (muscles, etc)
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 | straining |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #21,950 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “straining” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for straining is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #21,950 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 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 straining, with forms such as "srtaining", "sstraining", and "starining". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "striking", "striving", "straying", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is straining, spelled S-T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act by which one strains. (muscles, etc)
- 2filtering, the process of passing something through a strainer.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: srtaining,sstraining,starining,straiinng,strainign,strainingg,straininng,strainnig,strainning,straniing,strianing,strraining,sttraining,tsraining
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of straining - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “straining”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “striking” - see the side-by-side comparison. straining vs striking
- 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.