Which to use
“sawn” and “sown” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,902
- “sawn” frequency rank
- #30,976
- “sown” frequency rank
- 74878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sawn | sown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of saw | past participle of sow |
Letter map: sawn vs sown
Shared letters muted; letters that set sawn and sown apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sawn and sown follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on sawn vs sown
sawn and sown 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 o in “sown”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sawn is recorded at frequency rank #43,902, classified as averb. sown is at rank #30,976, tagged as averb, pronounced /soʊn/.
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 74878, this pair ranks #34,912 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sawn vs sown
Shared letters: nsw. Private to "sawn": a. Private to "sown": o.
"sawn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sown" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sawn" for "sown" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sawn" vs "sown" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sawn" and "sown".
- Full dictionary entry for "sawn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #34,912 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sawn" and "sown" 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 #34,912 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.