thundering
"thundering" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thundering” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,621 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #30,621
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of thunder
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 | thundering |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #30,621 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thundering” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for thundering is 10 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #30,621 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 thunder".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for thundering, with forms such as "htundering", "thhundering", and "thnudering". 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. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "tendering", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English thonderynge, þoundryng, equivalent to thunder + -ing. The correct English form is thundering, spelled T-H-U-N-D-E-R-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of thunder
Etymology
From Middle English thonderynge, þoundryng, equivalent to thunder + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htundering,thhundering,thnudering,thudnering,thunddering,thundeirng,thunderign,thunderingg,thunderinng,thundernig,thunderring,thundreing,thunedring,thunndering,tthundering,tuhndering
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of thundering - 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
How do you spell "thundering"?
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Using “thundering”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-U-N-D-E-R-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “tendering” - see the side-by-side comparison. thundering vs tendering
- 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.