Which to use
“stingy” is an adjective and “stinks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,034
- “stingy” frequency rank
- #22,827
- “stinks” frequency rank
- 50861
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stingy | stinks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unwilling to spend, give, or share; ungenerous; mean. | Chemistry (as a subject taught in school). |
Letter map: stingy vs stinks
Shared letters muted; letters that set stingy and stinks apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. stingy (CCVCCV) and stinks (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for stingy / stinks
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stingy is anadjective and stinksanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stingy is recorded at frequency rank #28,034, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈstɪnd͡ʒi/. stinks is at rank #22,827, tagged as anoun.
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 50861, this pair ranks #170,505 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stingy vs stinks
Shared letters: inst. Private to "stingy": gy. Private to "stinks": k.
"stingy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "stinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stingy" for "stinks" ever safe?
Which is more common, "stingy" or "stinks"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stingy" and "stinks".
- Full dictionary entry for "stingy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stinks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #170,505 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stingy" and "stinks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spongy vs stingy". 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 #170,505 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.