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PlainSpell

tin

/tɪn/noun, adjective, verb

tin is spelled T-I-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tin means “A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tin is tins.

How many letters and syllables are in tin?

Letters3: T-I-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is tin?

Tin appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce tin?

  • /tɪn/
  • [tʰɪn]

Tin has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tin.ogg, En-tin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with tin?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as tin.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: int, nit.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of tin

  • tins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tinning participle, present
  • tinned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does tin mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn.

  2. 2

    Iron or steel sheet metal that is coated with tin as an anticorrosion protectant.

    The roof was made of tin, which had been cut with tin snips.

  3. 3

    CommonwealthUKAn airtight container, made of tin-coated steel (called tinplate or tin), (formerly) tin, aluminium, or another metal, used to preserve food, or hold a liquid or some other product.

    a tin of baked beans; a tobacco tin; a tin of shoe polish

  4. 4

    A metal pan used for baking, roasting, storing food, etc.

    muffin tin

  5. 5

    The bottom part of the front wall, which is "out" if a player strikes it with the ball.

  6. 6

    datedslangmoney, especially silver money.

  7. 7

    slangcomputer hardware.

adjective

  1. 1

    Made of tin.

  2. 2

    Made of galvanised iron or built of corrugated iron.

  3. 3

    Made of aluminum.

verb

  1. 1

    To place into a metal can (ie. a tin; be it tin, steel, aluminum) in order to preserve.

  2. 2

    To cover with tin.

  3. 3

    To coat with solder, in preparation for soldering, to ensure a good solder joint

  4. 4

    To coat with solder, in order to consolidate braided wire, so as to make contact with all strands and reduce fragility of the fraying wire

noun

as TIN
  1. 1

    Initialism of taxpayer identification number.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Tin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchétain (element), conserve, boîte de conserve (airtight container), moule, gamelle (metal pan), d'étain (made of tin)
GermanZinn (element), Büchse, Konservenbüchse, Blechbüchse, Dose, Konservendose (airtight container)
Portugueseestanho (element), lata (airtight container), forma, tarteira (metal pan), de lata, de estanho (made of tin)
Spanishestaño (element), lata (airtight container), enlatar (to place into a tin in order to preserve), estañar (to cover with tin)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does tin come from?

From Middle English tin, from Old English tin, from Proto-West Germanic *tin, from Proto-Germanic *tiną.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after tin