Which to use
“stingy” and “stinky” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,034
- “stingy” frequency rank
- #24,916
- “stinky” frequency rank
- 52950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stingy | stinky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unwilling to spend, give, or share; ungenerous; mean. | Having a strong, unpleasant smell; stinking. |
Where the eye mixes stingy and stinky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. stingy and stinky follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses stingy with stinky
A purely visual mix-up. stingy (/ˈstɪnd͡ʒi/) and stinky (/ˈstɪŋki/) 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 a single letter - g in “stingy” becomes k in “stinky”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52950, 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/. stinky is at rank #24,916, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈstɪŋki/.
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 52950, this pair ranks #152,885 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stingy vs stinky
Shared letters: insty. Private to "stingy": g. Private to "stinky": k.
"stingy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "stinky" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stingy" and "stinky" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "stingy" or "stinky" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "stingy" and "stinky" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "stingy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stinky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,885 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stingy" and "stinky" 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 #152,885 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.