Which to use
“sack” and “sec” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,200
- “sack” frequency rank
- #4,268
- “sec” frequency rank
- 12468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sack | sec |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel. | Second, ¹⁄₆₀ of a minute. |
Where the eye mixes sack and sec
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. sack (/sæk/) and sec (/sɛk/) 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 12468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sack is recorded at frequency rank #8,200, classified as anoun, pronounced /sæk/. sec is at rank #4,268, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɛk/.
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 12468, this pair ranks #481,400 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sack vs sec
Shared letters: cs. Private to "sack": ak. Private to "sec": e.
"sack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sec" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sack ← asck · sacck · sackk · sakc · scak · ssack