saithvssithConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#31,331
“saith” frequency rank
#30,231
“sith” frequency rank
61562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saith sith
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of say A journey, way.

Where the eye mixes saith and sith

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
saith
4 ch
sith

Visual trap between saith and sith

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saith is /sɛθ/ while sith is /siːθ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saith is recorded at frequency rank #31,331, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛθ/. sith is at rank #30,231, tagged as anoun, pronounced /siːθ/.

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 61562, this pair ranks #93,538 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saith vs sith

Shared letters: hist. Private to "saith": a. Private to "sith": -.

"saith" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "sith" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saithasith · saiht · saithh · saitth · satih · siath · ssaith
  • sithisth · sithh · sitth · ssith · stih

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saith" for "sith" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saith" is a verb and "sith" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "saith" or "sith" show up more?
"sith" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,231 in our English list, against #31,331 for "saith". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saith" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sith" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,538 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saith" and "sith" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sif vs sith". 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 #93,538 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list