SeenvssensTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,816
“Seen” frequency rank
#42,806
“sens” frequency rank
50622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Seen sens
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs See Bedeutung; Sinn

Where the eye mixes Seen and sens

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Seen
4 ch
sens

Why the eye confuses Seen with sens

A purely visual mix-up. Seen ([ˈzeːən]) and sens ([sɑ̃s]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Seen is recorded at frequency rank #7,816, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzeːən]. sens is at rank #42,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sɑ̃s].

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 50622, this pair ranks #1,166,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Seen vs sens

Shared letters: ens. Private to "Seen": -. Private to "sens": -.

"Seen" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Seenseenn · sen · sene · sseen
  • sensesns · senns · senss · sesn · snes · ssens

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Seen" for "sens" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzeːən] versus [sɑ̃s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Seen" vs "sens" - which ranks higher?
"Seen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,816 in our German list, against #42,806 for "sens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Seen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,166,746 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Seen" and "sens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs sens". 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 #1,166,746 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