seervssexesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,713
“seer” frequency rank
#16,583
“sexes” frequency rank
45296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seer sexes
Definition One who foretells the future; a clairvoyant, prophet, soothsayer or diviner. plural of sex

Where the eye mixes seer and sexes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seer runs 4 letters (CVVC) against sexes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
seer
5 ch
sexes

Look-alike desk: seer vs sexes

A purely visual mix-up. seer (/sɪə(ɹ)/) and sexes (/ˈsɛksɪz/) 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 45296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seer is recorded at frequency rank #28,713, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɪə(ɹ)/. sexes is at rank #16,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛksɪz/.

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 45296, this pair ranks #222,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seer vs sexes

Shared letters: es. Private to "seer": r. Private to "sexes": x.

"seer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sexes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seereser · seerr · sere · sseer
  • sexesesxes · seexs · sexess · sexse · sexxes · ssexes · sxees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seer" for "sexes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/sɪə(ɹ)/ versus /ˈsɛksɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "seer" or "sexes" show up more?
"sexes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,583 in our English list, against #28,713 for "seer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "seer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sexes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #222,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seer" and "sexes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs seer". 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 #222,565 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