foodvsshiningWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: food is a noun, shining is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“food” is a noun and “shining” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,045
“food” frequency rank
#49,252
“shining” frequency rank
56297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature food shining
Definition jede Substanz die von Menschen, Pflanzen oder Tieren aufgenommen wird, um das Überleben und das Wachstum zu ermöglichen, Nahrung Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs shine

Letter map: food vs shining

Shared letters muted; letters that set food and shining apart highlighted. No shared letter run. food runs 4 letters (CVVC) against shining's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
food
7 ch
shining

Grammar separator: food vs shining

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: food is anoun and shiningaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

food is recorded at frequency rank #7,045, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. shining is at rank #49,252, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 56297, this pair ranks #945,742 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of food vs shining

Shared letters: none. Private to "food": dfo. Private to "shining": ghins.

"food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "shining" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • food ← ffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod
  • shining ← hsining · shhining · shiinng · shinign · shiningg · shininng · shinnig · shinning

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "food" and "shining" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "food" is a noun and "shining" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "food" or "shining"?
"food" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,045 in our German list, against #49,252 for "shining". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "food" vs "shining" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "food" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shining" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #945,742 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "food" and "shining" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shining". 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 #945,742 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list