sealsvssesTell them apart

Quick tell: seals is a noun, ses is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seals” is a noun and “ses” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,123
“seals” frequency rank
#26,610
“ses” frequency rank
68733
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seals ses
Definition Plural des Substantivs seal Kontraktion von jsi + se

Letter map: seals vs ses

Shared letters muted; letters that set seals and ses apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
seals
3 ch
ses

Role in the sentence - seals and ses

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seals is anoun and sesanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68733, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seals is recorded at frequency rank #42,123, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. ses is at rank #26,610, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [sɛs].

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 68733, this pair ranks #498,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seals vs ses

Shared letters: es. Private to "seals": al. Private to "ses": -.

"seals" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "ses" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sealsesals · sealls · sealss · seasl · selas · sseals

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seals" for "ses" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seals" is a noun and "ses" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "seals" vs "ses" - which ranks higher?
"ses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,610 in our German list, against #42,123 for "seals". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "seals" and "ses". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seals" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #498,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seals" and "ses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs seals". 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 #498,605 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