sitingvsstinkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“siting” and “stink” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,898
“siting” frequency rank
#15,922
“stink” frequency rank
58820
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature siting stink
Definition present participle and gerund of site To have a strong bad smell.

Where the eye mixes siting and stink

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. siting runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against stink's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
siting
5 ch
stink

Visual trap between siting and stink

A purely visual mix-up. siting (/ˈsaɪtɪŋ/) and stink (/stɪŋk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

siting is recorded at frequency rank #42,898, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsaɪtɪŋ/. stink is at rank #15,922, tagged as averb, pronounced /stɪŋk/.

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 58820, this pair ranks #110,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of siting vs stink

Shared letters: inst. Private to "siting": g. Private to "stink": k.

"siting" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "stink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • siting ← isting · siitng · sitign · sitingg · sitinng · sitnig · ssiting · stiing
  • stink ← sitnk · sstink · stikn · stinkk · stinnk · stnik · sttink · tsink

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "siting" for "stink" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsaɪtɪŋ/ versus /stɪŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "siting" or "stink"?
"stink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,922 in our English list, against #42,898 for "siting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "siting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "siting" and "stink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "siting vs suiting". 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 #110,056 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list