silvssingWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sil is a noun, sing is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sil” is a noun and “sing” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,487
“sil” frequency rank
#9,977
“sing” frequency rank
58464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sil sing
Definition Küchengerät mit vielen Löschern; Sieb 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs singen

Letter map: sil vs sing

Shared letters muted; letters that set sil and sing apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sil
4 ch
sing

Grammar separator: sil vs sing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sil is anoun and singaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sil is recorded at frequency rank #48,487, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. sing is at rank #9,977, tagged as averb, pronounced [zɪŋ].

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 58464, this pair ranks #861,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sil vs sing

Shared letters: is. Private to "sil": l. Private to "sing": gn.

"sil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singisng · singg · sinng · snig · ssing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sil" for "sing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sil" is a noun and "sing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sil" or "sing"?
"sing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,977 in our German list, against #48,487 for "sil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sil" vs "sing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #861,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sil" and "sing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sil". 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 #861,775 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