stinking
/ˈstɪŋkɪŋ/
"stinking" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stinking” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #27,658. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #27,658
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having a pungent smell.
Corpus desk
Index EN-stinking · stinking · English
stinking · rank #27,658 · 13 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #27,658
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Stephan
Nearest frequency peer: Stephan (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “stinking”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- stalemate
stalemate
72,346 corpus weight
- stave
stave
72,345 corpus weight
- Stephan
Stephan
72,344 corpus weight
- stinking
stinking
72,343 corpus weight
- strangle
strangle
72,341 corpus weight
- streamer
streamer
72,340 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “stinking” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stinking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈstɪŋkɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #27,658 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stinking” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around stinking (IPA /ˈstɪŋkɪŋ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #27,658 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for stinking, with forms such as "sitnking", "sstinking", and "stikning". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "stoning", "stunning", "striking", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stynkynge, stinkinge, stinkinde, stinkende, stynkande, stynkand, from Old English stincende, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwandz (“stinking”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną (“to stink”), equivalent to stink + -ing. Cognate … The correct English form is stinking, spelled S-T-I-N-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Having a pungent smell.
- 2Very bad and undesirable.
- 3Very drunk.
- 4An intensifier, a hypallage.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how stinking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I have a stinking cold.
Oh, I got stinking—and, worse, acted like the world's worst heel to top it off. I passed out mentally about the time we left the club—which must have been around 2:30—but unfortunately didn't pass out physically.
Etymology
From Middle English stynkynge, stinkinge, stinkinde, stinkende, stynkande, stynkand, from Old English stincende, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwandz (“stinking”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną (“to stink”), equivalent to stink + -ing. Cognate with Dutch stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), German stinkend (“stinking, stinky”), Danish stinkende (“stinking, stinky”), Norwegian stinkende (“stinking, stinky”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- sitnking
- sstinking
- stikning
- stinikng
- stinkign
- stinkingg
- stinkinng
- stinkking
- stinknig
- stinnking
- stniking
- sttinking
- tsinking
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stinking - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "stinking", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "stinking". Here's where to go from here.
- "stinking" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "stoning". View pair
- 13 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #27,658 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.