stinks vs stint, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“stinks” is a noun and “stint” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,827
“stinks” frequency rank: #12,867
“stint” frequency rank: 35694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	stinks	stint
Definition	Chemistry (as a subject taught in school).	To stop (an action); cease, desist.

Letter map: stinks vs stint

Shared letters muted; letters that set stinks and stint apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch

stinks

5 ch

stint

Role in the sentence - stinks and stint

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stinks is anoun and stintaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stinks is recorded at frequency rank #22,827, classified as anoun. stint is at rank #12,867, tagged as averb, pronounced /stɪnt/.

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 35694, this pair ranks #309,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stinks vs stint

Shared letters: inst. Private to "stinks": k. Private to "stint": -.

"stinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "stint" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

stinks ← sitnks · sstinks · stikns · stinkks · stinkss · stinnks · stinsk · stniks
stint ← sitnt · sstint · stinnt · stintt · stitn · stnit · sttint · tsint

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stinks" for "stint" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stinks" is a noun and "stint" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "stinks" or "stint"?

"stint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,867 in our English list, against #22,827 for "stinks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stinks" and "stint".

Full dictionary entry for "stinks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "stint" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #309,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"stinks" and "stint" 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 #309,717 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.