thingvstuningWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#18,088
“thing” frequency rank
#34,408
“tuning” frequency rank
52496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thing tuning
Definition ein materielles Objekt, ohne Bewusstsein Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs tune

Letter map: thing vs tuning

Shared letters muted; letters that set thing and tuning apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
thing
6 ch
tuning

Part-of-speech tell for thing / tuning

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thing is anoun and tuningaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thing is recorded at frequency rank #18,088, classified as anoun, pronounced [θɪŋ]. tuning is at rank #34,408, 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 52496, this pair ranks #1,094,484 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of thing vs tuning

Shared letters: gint. Private to "thing": h. Private to "tuning": u.

"thing" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "tuning" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thinghting · thhing · thign · thingg · thinng · thnig · tihng · tthing
  • tuningtnuing · ttuning · tuinng · tunign · tuningg · tuninng · tunnig · tunning

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thing" and "tuning" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thing" is a noun and "tuning" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "thing" vs "tuning" - which ranks higher?
"thing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,088 in our German list, against #34,408 for "tuning". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "thing" vs "tuning" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "thing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tuning" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,094,484 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thing" and "tuning" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tuning". 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 #1,094,484 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