sinvsSpionWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sin is a abbrev, Spion is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,171
“sin” frequency rank
#18,070
“Spion” frequency rank
28241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sin Spion
Definition Sinus ein heimlicher, unerkannter Beobachter, der die gegnerische Seite auszukunden hat

Letter map: sin vs Spion

Shared letters muted; letters that set sin and Spion apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
sin
5 ch
Spion

Role in the sentence - sin and Spion

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sin is anabbrev and Spionanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sin is recorded at frequency rank #10,171, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. Spion is at rank #18,070, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃpiˈoːn].

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 28241, this pair ranks #1,788,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sin vs Spion

Shared letters: ins. Private to "sin": -. Private to "Spion": op.

"sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Spion" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Spionpsion · sipon · spino · spionn · spoin · sppion · sspion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sin" and "Spion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sin" is an abbrev and "Spion" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sin" vs "Spion" - which ranks higher?
"sin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,171 in our German list, against #18,070 for "Spion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sin" vs "Spion" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Spion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,788,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sin" and "Spion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spies vs Spion". 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 #1,788,179 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