thingvstintWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“thing” and “tint” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#184
“thing” frequency rank
#21,964
“tint” frequency rank
22148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thing tint
Definition That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept. A slight coloring.

Where the eye mixes thing and tint

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
thing
4 ch
tint

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. thing (/ˈθɪŋ/) and tint (/tɪnt/) 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 22148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thing is recorded at frequency rank #184, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈθɪŋ/. tint is at rank #21,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɪnt/.

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 22148, this pair ranks #418,711 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of thing vs tint

Shared letters: int. Private to "thing": gh. Private to "tint": -.

"thing" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "tint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thinghting · thhing · thign · thingg · thinng · thnig · tihng · tthing
  • tintitnt · tinnt · tintt · titn · tnit · ttint

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thing" and "tint" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈθɪŋ/ versus /tɪnt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "thing" or "tint"?
"thing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #184 in our English list, against #21,964 for "tint". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list