Which to use
“stink” is a verb and “stinks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,922
- “stink” frequency rank
- #22,827
- “stinks” frequency rank
- 38749
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stink | stinks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To have a strong bad smell. | Chemistry (as a subject taught in school). |
Letter map: stink vs stinks
Shared letters muted; letters that set stink and stinks apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. stink runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against stinks's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for stink / stinks
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stink is averb and stinksanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “stink” sits inside “stinks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stink is recorded at frequency rank #15,922, classified as averb, pronounced /stɪŋk/. 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 38749, this pair ranks #283,102 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stink vs stinks
Shared letters: iknst. Private to "stink": -. Private to "stinks": -.
"stink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "stinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stink" and "stinks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "stink" or "stinks" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stink" and "stinks".
- Full dictionary entry for "stink" 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 #283,102 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stink" and "stinks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "slinky vs stinks". 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 #283,102 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.