Different / Differing

[aous02]

English has a lot of different words with similar but slightly differing meanings.

Does "deffering" here means "distinctive"

[Delmobile]

Differing just means, well, to differ. To be different. "Distinctive" means quite different, easily distinguished.

If I had written this sentence, I'd leave out the first "different" and replace the word "differing" with it: "English has a lot of words that have similar but slightly different meanings." Or, "English has a lot of words whose meanings differ only slightly."