Which to use
“stingy” and “stony” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,034
- “stingy” frequency rank
- #19,707
- “stony” frequency rank
- 47741
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stingy | stony |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unwilling to spend, give, or share; ungenerous; mean. | As hard as stone. |
Where the eye mixes stingy and stony
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stingy runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against stony's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses stingy with stony
A purely visual mix-up. stingy (/ˈstɪnd͡ʒi/) and stony (/ˈstəʊni/) 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 47741, 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/. stony is at rank #19,707, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈstəʊni/.
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 47741, this pair ranks #199,649 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stingy vs stony
Shared letters: nsty. Private to "stingy": gi. Private to "stony": o.
"stingy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "stony" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stingy" for "stony" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stingy" vs "stony" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "stingy" and "stony" 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 "stony" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,649 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stingy" and "stony" 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 #199,649 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.