Which to use
“send” and “sent” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #817
- “send” frequency rank
- #722
- “sent” frequency rank
- 1539
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | send | sent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make something (such as an object or message) go from one place to another (or to someone). | simple past and past participle of send |
Where the eye mixes send and sent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. send (/sɛnd/) and sent (/sɛnt/) 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 a single letter - d in “send” becomes t in “sent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
send is recorded at frequency rank #817, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛnd/. sent is at rank #722, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɛnt/.
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 1539, this pair ranks #527,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of send vs sent
Shared letters: ens. Private to "send": d. Private to "sent": t.
"send" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC