Which to use
“thine” is a determiner and “thinly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,485
- “thine” frequency rank
- #20,513
- “thinly” frequency rank
- 39998
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thine | thinly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Second-person singular prevocalic possessive determiner (preconsonantal form: thy). | In a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly. |
Where the eye mixes thine and thinly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thine with thinly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thine is /ðaɪn/ while thinly is /ˈθɪnli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thine is recorded at frequency rank #19,485, classified as adet, pronounced /ðaɪn/. thinly is at rank #20,513, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈθɪnli/.
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 39998, this pair ranks #271,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thine vs thinly
Shared letters: hint. Private to "thine": e. Private to "thinly": ly.
"thine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "thinly" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thine" for "thinly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thine" vs "thinly" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thinly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thine" and "thinly" 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 #271,581 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.