Which to use
“says” and “sez” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #310
- “says” frequency rank
- #49,041
- “sez” frequency rank
- 49351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | says | sez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of say | Eye dialect spelling of says. |
Same sound, different letters: says vs sez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
This is the hard kind. says and sez are pronounced identically (/sɛz/) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
says is recorded at frequency rank #310, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛz/. sez is at rank #49,041, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɛz/.
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 49351, this pair ranks #184,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of says vs sez
Shared letters: s. Private to "says": ay. Private to "sez": ez.
"says" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sez" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- says ← asys · sasy · sayss · sayys · ssays · syas