satevssieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“sate” and “sie” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,469
“sate” frequency rank
#26,962
“sie” frequency rank
75431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sate sie
Definition To satisfy the appetite or desire of; to fill up. To sink; fall; drop.

Where the eye mixes sate and sie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sate
3 ch
sie

Look-alike desk: sate vs sie

A purely visual mix-up. sate (/seɪt/) and sie (/saɪ/) 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 75431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sate is recorded at frequency rank #48,469, classified as averb, pronounced /seɪt/. sie is at rank #26,962, tagged as averb, pronounced /saɪ/.

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 75431, this pair ranks #33,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sate vs sie

Shared letters: es. Private to "sate": at. Private to "sie": i.

"sate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sateaste · ssate · stae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sate" for "sie" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/seɪt/ versus /saɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "sate" or "sie" show up more?
"sie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,962 in our English list, against #48,469 for "sate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sate" and "sie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saki vs sate". 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 #33,157 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