thinvsTonWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: thin is a adjective, Ton is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,623
“thin” frequency rank
#2,180
“Ton” frequency rank
47803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thin Ton
Definition von geringer Dicke feinkörniges Verwitterungsprodukt, Bodenart, Töpfermaterial, Baustoff/Werkstoff

Where the eye mixes thin and Ton

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

4 ch
thin
3 ch
Ton

Visual trap between thin and Ton

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thin is [ˈθɪn] while Ton is [toːn]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47803, 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]. Ton is at rank #2,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced [toːn].

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 47803, this pair ranks #1,271,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of thin vs Ton

Shared letters: nt. Private to "thin": hi. Private to "Ton": o.

"thin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Ton" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thinhtin · thhin · thinn · thni · tihn · tthin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "thin" for "Ton" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thin" is an adjective and "Ton" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "thin" or "Ton" show up more?
"Ton" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,180 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "thin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,271,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thin" and "Ton" 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

Confusion rank #1,271,414 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