touching
/ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/
"touching" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“touching” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,990. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,990
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of touch
Corpus desk
Index EN-touching · touching · English
touching · rank #4,990 · 12 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,990
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH theories
Nearest frequency peer: theories (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “touching”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- tension
tension
95,014 corpus weight
- Thailand
Thailand
95,013 corpus weight
- theories
theories
95,012 corpus weight
- touching
touching
95,011 corpus weight
- transactions
transactions
95,010 corpus weight
- twist
twist
95,009 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “touching” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | touching |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #4,990 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “touching” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around touching (IPA /ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #4,990 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of touch".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for touching, with forms such as "otuching", "tocuhing", and "toucching". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "touring", "tucking", "touting", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English touchynge, equivalent to touch + -ing. The correct English form is touching, spelled T-O-U-C-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of touch
Etymology
From Middle English touchynge, equivalent to touch + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- otuching
- tocuhing
- toucching
- touchhing
- touchign
- touchingg
- touchinng
- touchnig
- toucihng
- touhcing
- ttouching
- tuoching
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of touching - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "touching"?
What does "touching" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "touching"?
How do you pronounce "touching"?
What is the origin of the word "touching"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "touching", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "touching". Here's where to go from here.
- "touching" maps to 5 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "touring". View pair
- 12 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #4,990 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "T" letter cohort. T–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.