Which to use
“sages” and “sexes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,166
- “sages” frequency rank
- #16,583
- “sexes” frequency rank
- 48749
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sages | sexes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of sage | plural of sex |
Where the eye mixes sages and sexes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sages and sexes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between sages and sexes
A purely visual mix-up. sages (/ˈseɪ.d͡ʒɪz/) and sexes (/ˈsɛksɪz/) 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 48749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sages is recorded at frequency rank #32,166, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈseɪ.d͡ʒɪz/. sexes is at rank #16,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛksɪz/.
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 48749, this pair ranks #190,120 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sages vs sexes
Shared letters: es. Private to "sages": ag. Private to "sexes": x.
"sages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sexes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sages" and "sexes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sages" or "sexes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sexes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,120 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sages" and "sexes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sages vs Seager". 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 #190,120 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.