chinavschinoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: china is a noun, chino is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

By · Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org ·

Which to use

“china” is a noun and “chino” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,005
“china” frequency rank
#35,485
“chino” frequency rank
36490
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature china chino
Definition tipo de prato usado em baterias chinês

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set china and chino apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
china
5 ch
chino

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: china is /ʃi.na/ while chino is /ˈtʃi.no/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “china” becomes o in “chino”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

china is recorded at frequency rank #1,005, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃi.na/. chino is at rank #35,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtʃi.no/.

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 36490, this pair ranks #30,311 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of china vs chino

Shared letters: chin. Private to "china": a. Private to "chino": o.

"china" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "chino" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • china ← cchina · chhina · chian · chinna · chnia · cihna · hcina
  • chino ← cchino · chhino · chinno · chion · chnio · cihno · hcino

Frequency comparison

china#1,005
chino#35,485

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "china" and "chino" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "china" is a noun and "chino" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "china" or "chino"?
"china" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,005 in our Portuguese list, against #35,485 for "chino". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering china vs chino

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “china”; for an adjective, it's “chino”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “china” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list