SakevssawTell them apart

Which to use

“Sake” and “saw” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,710
“Sake” frequency rank
#26,599
“saw” frequency rank
74309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sake saw
Definition japanisches alkoholisches Getränk, das aus mit Hefe vergorenem Reis hergestellt wird und heiß getrunken wird ein Werkzeug zum Zerteilen von festem Material, insbesondere von Holz; Säge

Where the eye mixes Sake and saw

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

4 ch
Sake
3 ch
saw

Look-alike desk: Sake vs saw

A purely visual mix-up. Sake ([ˈzaːkə]) and saw ([sɔː]) 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 74309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sake is recorded at frequency rank #47,710, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaːkə]. saw is at rank #26,599, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sɔː].

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 74309, this pair ranks #336,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sake vs saw

Shared letters: as. Private to "Sake": ek. Private to "saw": w.

"Sake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "saw" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sakeaske · saek · sakke · skae · ssake

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sake" and "saw" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaːkə] versus [sɔː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Sake" or "saw" show up more?
"saw" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,599 in our German list, against #47,710 for "Sake". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #336,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sake" and "saw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs Sire". 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 #336,849 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