Which to use
“thin” is an adjective and “tine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,623
- “thin” frequency rank
- #49,303
- “tine” frequency rank
- 94926
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thin | tine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | von geringer Dicke | Feuer |
Letter map: thin vs tine
Shared letters muted; letters that set thin and tine apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. thin (CCVC) and tine (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for thin / tine
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thin is anadjective and tineanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thin is recorded at frequency rank #45,623, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈθɪn]. tine is at rank #49,303, tagged as anoun, 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 94926, this pair ranks #14,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thin vs tine
Shared letters: int. Private to "thin": h. Private to "tine": e.
"thin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thin" for "tine" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "thin" or "tine" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "thin" and "tine".
- Full dictionary entry for "thin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thin" and "tine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles 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
Confusion rank #14,136 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.