sentvssezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#722
“sent” frequency rank
#49,041
“sez” frequency rank
49763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sent sez
Definition simple past and past participle of send Eye dialect spelling of says.

Where the eye mixes sent and sez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sent
3 ch
sez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. sent (/sɛnt/) and sez (/sɛz/) 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 49763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sent is recorded at frequency rank #722, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛnt/. sez is at rank #49,041, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɛz/.

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 49763, this pair ranks #180,537 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sent vs sez

Shared letters: es. Private to "sent": nt. Private to "sez": z.

"sent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sez" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sentesnt · sennt · sentt · setn · snet · ssent

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sent" and "sez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/sɛnt/ versus /sɛz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sent" or "sez"?
"sent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #722 in our English list, against #49,041 for "sez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list