sec vs sh, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“sec” is a noun and “sh” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,268
“sec” frequency rank: #8,856
“sh” frequency rank: 13124
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sec	sh
Definition	Second, ¹⁄₆₀ of a minute.	Alternative spelling of shh.

Letter map: sec vs sh

Shared letters muted; letters that set sec and sh apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

sec

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for sec / sh

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sec is anoun and shanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sec is recorded at frequency rank #4,268, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɛk/. sh is at rank #8,856, tagged as anintj.

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 13124, this pair ranks #477,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sec vs sh

Shared letters: s. Private to "sec": ce. Private to "sh": h.

"sec" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sh" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sec" for "sh" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sec" is a noun and "sh" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "sec" vs "sh" - which ranks higher?

"sec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,268 in our English list, against #8,856 for "sh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "sec" vs "sh" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "sec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #477,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sec" and "sh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sh vs Sif". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #477,635 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.