Which to use
“sense” and “ses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #665
- “sense” frequency rank
- #20,491
- “ses” frequency rank
- 21156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sense | ses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste. | Alternative spelling of sess (sensimilla) |
Letter map: sense vs ses
Shared letters muted; letters that set sense and ses apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Corpus notes: sense and ses
sense and ses are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sense is recorded at frequency rank #665, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɛns/. ses is at rank #20,491, tagged as anoun.
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 21156, this pair ranks #425,975 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sense vs ses
Shared letters: es. Private to "sense": n. Private to "ses": -.
"sense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "ses" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sense ← esnse · senes · sennse · sensse · sesne · snese · ssense
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sense" for "ses" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sense" vs "ses" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "sense" and "ses". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "sense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,975 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sense" and "ses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ses 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 #425,975 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.