sacvssafeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#42,101
“sac” frequency rank
#6,848
“safe” frequency rank
48949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sac safe
Definition ein Transport- und Aufbewahrungsbehältnis aus grobem Stoff oder robustem Material vor Gefahren geschützt

Where the eye mixes sac and safe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sac
4 ch
safe

Visual trap between sac and safe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sac is [sak] while safe is [sɛɪ̯f]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sac is recorded at frequency rank #42,101, classified as anoun, pronounced [sak]. safe is at rank #6,848, tagged as anadj, pronounced [sɛɪ̯f].

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 48949, this pair ranks #1,229,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sac vs safe

Shared letters: as. Private to "sac": c. Private to "safe": ef.

"sac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "safe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • safeasfe · saef · saffe · sfae · ssafe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sac" for "safe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sac" is a noun and "safe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sac" or "safe" show up more?
"safe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,848 in our German list, against #42,101 for "sac". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "safe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,229,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sac" and "safe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sac vs seg". 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 #1,229,596 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list