sensvssensedTell them apart

Quick tell: sens is a noun, sensed is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sens” is a noun and “sensed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,357
“sens” frequency rank
#19,202
“sensed” frequency rank
40559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sens sensed
Definition Clipping of sensitivity. Having a specified number or kind of senses.

Letter map: sens vs sensed

Shared letters muted; letters that set sens and sensed apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. sens runs 4 letters (CVCC) against sensed's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sens
6 ch
sensed

Grammar separator: sens vs sensed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sens is anoun and sensedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sens” sits inside “sensed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sens is recorded at frequency rank #21,357, classified as anoun. sensed is at rank #19,202, tagged as anadj.

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 40559, this pair ranks #266,452 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sens vs sensed

Shared letters: ens. Private to "sens": -. Private to "sensed": d.

"sens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sensed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sens ← esns · senns · senss · sesn · ssens
  • sensed ← esnsed · senesd · sennsed · sensde · sensedd · senssed · sesned · snesed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sens" and "sensed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sens" is a noun and "sensed" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sens" or "sensed" show up more?
"sensed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,202 in our English list, against #21,357 for "sens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "sens" vs "sensed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sensed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,452 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sens" and "sensed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sens vs suds". 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 #266,452 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