thatvsthinWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: that is a pronoun, thin is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“that” is a pronoun and “thin” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,321
“that” frequency rank
#45,623
“thin” frequency rank
47944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature that thin
Definition kennzeichnet ein Ding, eine Person oder einen Vorgang, der räumlich oder von der Vorstellung weiter weg ist von geringer Dicke

Where the eye mixes that and thin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
that
4 ch
thin

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: that is [ðæt] while thin is [ˈθɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

that is recorded at frequency rank #2,321, classified as apron, pronounced [ðæt]. thin is at rank #45,623, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈθɪn].

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 47944, this pair ranks #1,266,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of that vs thin

Shared letters: ht. Private to "that": a. Private to "thin": in.

"that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "thin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thathtat · taht · thatt · thhat · thta · tthat
  • thinhtin · thhin · thinn · thni · tihn · tthin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "that" and "thin" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "that" is a pronoun and "thin" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "that" or "thin"?
"that" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,321 in our German list, against #45,623 for "thin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "that" and "thin". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "that" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,266,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "that" and "thin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thin vs tine". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list