Which to use
“looking” is a verb and “loving” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,585
- “looking” frequency rank
- #49,773
- “loving” frequency rank
- 81358
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | looking | loving |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe présent du verbe to look. | Aimant. |
Where the eye mixes looking and loving
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: looking vs loving
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: looking is \ˈlʊk.ɪŋ\ while loving is \ˈlʌv.ɪŋ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
looking is recorded at frequency rank #31,585, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈlʊk.ɪŋ\. loving is at rank #49,773, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈlʌv.ɪŋ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 81358, this pair ranks #18,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of looking vs loving
Shared letters: gilno. Private to "looking": k. Private to "loving": v.
"looking" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "loving" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "looking" and "loving" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "looking" or "loving"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "looking" and "loving" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "looking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loving" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #18,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "looking" and "loving" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "login vs loving". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #18,922 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.