Which to use
“sawn” and “sewn” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,902
- “sawn” frequency rank
- #23,095
- “sewn” frequency rank
- 66997
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sawn | sewn |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of saw | past participle of sew |
Letter map: sawn vs sewn
Shared letters muted; letters that set sawn and sewn apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sawn and sewn follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Corpus notes: sawn and sewn
sawn and sewn are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “sawn” becomes e in “sewn”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sawn is recorded at frequency rank #43,902, classified as averb. sewn is at rank #23,095, tagged as averb, pronounced /səʊn/.
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 66997, this pair ranks #65,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sawn vs sewn
Shared letters: nsw. Private to "sawn": a. Private to "sewn": e.
"sawn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sewn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sawn" for "sewn" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sawn" or "sewn"?
After this comparison
Pair "sawn" vs "sewn" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "sawn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sewn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sawn" and "sewn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "savin vs sawn". 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 #65,398 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.