thingsvstingeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#179
“things” frequency rank
#35,988
“tinge” frequency rank
36167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature things tinge
Definition plural of thing A small added amount of colour; (by extension) a small added amount of some other thing.

Where the eye mixes things and tinge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
things
5 ch
tinge

Visual trap between things and tinge

A purely visual mix-up. things (/ˈθɪŋz/) and tinge (/tɪnd͡ʒ/) 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 36167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

things is recorded at frequency rank #179, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈθɪŋz/. tinge is at rank #35,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɪnd͡ʒ/.

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 36167, this pair ranks #305,580 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of things vs tinge

Shared letters: gint. Private to "things": hs. Private to "tinge": e.

"things" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "tinge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thingshtings · thhings · thigns · thinggs · thingss · thinngs · thinsg · thnigs
  • tingeitnge · tigne · tineg · tingge · tinnge · tnige · ttinge

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "things" for "tinge" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈθɪŋz/ versus /tɪnd͡ʒ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "things" vs "tinge" - which ranks higher?
"things" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #179 in our English list, against #35,988 for "tinge". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "things" and "tinge" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "things" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tinge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,580 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "things" and "tinge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tinge vs tints". 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 #305,580 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list