Which to use
“sed” is a name and “sowed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,340
- “sed” frequency rank
- #47,920
- “sowed” frequency rank
- 79260
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sed | sowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A noninteractive text editor (originally developed in Unix), intended for making systematic edits in an automatic or batch-oriented way. | simple past and past participle of sow |
Where the eye mixes sed and sowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sed runs 3 letters (CVC) against sowed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: sed vs sowed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sed is /sɛd/ while sowed is /səʊd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sed is recorded at frequency rank #31,340, classified as aname, pronounced /sɛd/. sowed is at rank #47,920, tagged as averb, pronounced /səʊd/.
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 79260, this pair ranks #22,526 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sed vs sowed
Shared letters: des. Private to "sed": -. Private to "sowed": ow.
"sed" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sowed ← oswed · soewd · sowde · sowedd · sowwed · ssowed · swoed
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sed" and "sowed" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "sed" or "sowed" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sed" and "sowed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,526 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sed" and "sowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sone vs sowed". 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 #22,526 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.