Which to use
“seem” is a verb and “sex” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #883
- “seem” frequency rank
- #611
- “sex” frequency rank
- 1494
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seem | sex |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To appear; to look outwardly; to be perceived as. | A category into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species; the system of such categories, which can differ by organism or by taxonomic branch. |
Where the eye mixes seem and sex
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seem is /siːm/ while sex is /sɛks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seem is recorded at frequency rank #883, classified as averb, pronounced /siːm/. sex is at rank #611, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɛks/.
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 1494, this pair ranks #527,322 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of seem vs sex
Shared letters: es. Private to "seem": m. Private to "sex": x.
"seem" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sex" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- seem ← esem · seemm · seme · sseem