findvsfineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: find is a verb, fine is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“find” is a verb and “fine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#169
“find” frequency rank
#586
“fine” frequency rank
755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature find fine
Definition To locate Senses referring to subjective quality.

Where the eye mixes find and fine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
find
4 ch
fine

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: find is /faɪnd/ while fine is /faɪn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “find” becomes e in “fine”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

find is recorded at frequency rank #169, classified as averb, pronounced /faɪnd/. fine is at rank #586, tagged as anadj, pronounced /faɪn/.

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 755, this pair ranks #528,854 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of find vs fine

Shared letters: fin. Private to "find": d. Private to "fine": e.

"find" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • findffind · fidn · findd · finnd · fnid · ifnd
  • fineffine · fien · finne · fnie · ifne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "find" and "fine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "find" is a verb and "fine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "find" or "fine"?
"find" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #169 in our English list, against #586 for "fine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list