seatsvssectWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“seats” and “sect” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,860
“seats” frequency rank
#14,210
“sect” frequency rank
17070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seats sect
Definition plural of seat An offshoot of a larger religion or denomination.

Where the eye mixes seats and sect

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
seats
4 ch
sect

Visual trap between seats and sect

A purely visual mix-up. seats (/siːts/) and sect (/sɛkt/) 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 17070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seats is recorded at frequency rank #2,860, classified as anoun, pronounced /siːts/. sect is at rank #14,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɛkt/.

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 17070, this pair ranks #453,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seats vs sect

Shared letters: est. Private to "seats": a. Private to "sect": c.

"seats" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "sect" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seatsesats · saets · seast · seatss · seatts · setas · sseats
  • sectesct · scet · secct · sectt · setc · ssect

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "seats" and "sect" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/siːts/ versus /sɛkt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "seats" vs "sect" - which ranks higher?
"seats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,860 in our English list, against #14,210 for "sect". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sect" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #453,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seats" and "sect" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sect vs soca". 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 #453,825 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