seatedvssiftedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: seated is a verb, sifted is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seated” is a verb and “sifted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,483
“seated” frequency rank
#49,049
“sifted” frequency rank
57532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seated sifted
Definition simple past and past participle of seat Having undergone sifting.

Letter map: seated vs sifted

Shared letters muted; letters that set seated and sifted apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. seated (CVVCVC) and sifted (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
seated
6 ch
sifted

Role in the sentence - seated and sifted

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seated is averb and siftedanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seated is recorded at frequency rank #8,483, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsiːtɪd/. sifted is at rank #49,049, tagged as anadj.

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 57532, this pair ranks #118,708 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seated vs sifted

Shared letters: dest. Private to "seated": a. Private to "sifted": fi.

"seated" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "sifted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seated ← esated · saeted · seaetd · seatde · seatedd · seatted · setaed · sseated
  • sifted ← isfted · sfited · sifetd · siffted · siftde · siftedd · siftted · sitfed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seated" and "sifted" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seated" is a verb and "sifted" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seated" or "sifted"?
"seated" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,483 in our English list, against #49,049 for "sifted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "seated" vs "sifted" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seated" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sifted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,708 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seated" and "sifted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sifted vs stilted". 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 #118,708 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