ScanvsseaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,044
“Scan” frequency rank
#11,518
“sea” frequency rank
31562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Scan sea
Definition Kopie beziehungsweise das Abbild einer Vorlage, die mit Hilfe eines Scanners erstellt wurde das Meer

Where the eye mixes Scan and sea

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

4 ch
Scan
3 ch
sea

Visual trap between Scan and sea

A purely visual mix-up. Scan ([skɛn]) and sea ([siː]) 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 31562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Scan is recorded at frequency rank #20,044, classified as anoun, pronounced [skɛn]. sea is at rank #11,518, tagged as anoun, pronounced [siː].

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 31562, this pair ranks #1,725,607 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Scan vs sea

Shared letters: as. Private to "Scan": cn. Private to "sea": e.

"Scan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "sea" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Scancsan · sacn · scann · sccan · scna · sscan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Scan" and "sea" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([skɛn] versus [siː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Scan" or "sea"?
"sea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,518 in our German list, against #20,044 for "Scan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Scan" and "sea" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Scan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,725,607 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Scan" and "sea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sai vs Scan". 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 #1,725,607 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