Which to use
“sear” and “spare” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,374
- “sear” frequency rank
- #4,490
- “spare” frequency rank
- 45864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sear | spare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dry; withered, especially of vegetation. | Extra. |
Where the eye mixes sear and spare
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sear runs 4 letters (CVVC) against spare's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sear and spare
A purely visual mix-up. sear (/sɪɚ/) and spare (/spɛə(ɹ)/) 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 45864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sear is recorded at frequency rank #41,374, classified as anadj, pronounced /sɪɚ/. spare is at rank #4,490, tagged as anadj, pronounced /spɛə(ɹ)/.
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 45864, this pair ranks #217,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sear vs spare
Shared letters: aers. Private to "sear": -. Private to "spare": p.
"sear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "spare" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sear" and "spare" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sear" or "spare"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sear" and "spare" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sear" and "spare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs sear". 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 #217,164 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.