Which to use
“thick” is an adjective and “thine” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,265
- “thick” frequency rank
- #19,485
- “thine” frequency rank
- 22750
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thick | thine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. | Second-person singular prevocalic possessive determiner (preconsonantal form: thy). |
Where the eye mixes thick and thine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thick with thine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thick is /θɪk/ while thine is /ðaɪn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22750, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thick is recorded at frequency rank #3,265, classified as anadj, pronounced /θɪk/. thine is at rank #19,485, tagged as adet, pronounced /ðaɪn/.
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 22750, this pair ranks #414,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thick vs thine
Shared letters: hit. Private to "thick": ck. Private to "thine": en.
"thick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "thine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thick" and "thine" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "thick" or "thine" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #414,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thick" and "thine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thine vs Thun". 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 #414,290 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.