Which to use
“sesame” and “sewage” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,903
- “sesame” frequency rank
- #14,017
- “sewage” frequency rank
- 29920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sesame | sewage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tropical Asian plant (Sesamum indicum) bearing small flat seeds used as food and as a source of oil. | A suspension of water and solid waste, transported by sewers to be disposed of or processed. |
Where the eye mixes sesame and sewage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sesame and sewage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses sesame with sewage
A purely visual mix-up. sesame (/ˈsɛsəmi/) and sewage (/ˈsuː.ɪd͡ʒ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sesame is recorded at frequency rank #15,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛsəmi/. sewage is at rank #14,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsuː.ɪd͡ʒ/.
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 29920, this pair ranks #358,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sesame vs sewage
Shared letters: aes. Private to "sesame": m. Private to "sewage": gw.
"sesame" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "sewage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sesame" and "sewage" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sesame" or "sewage"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sesame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sewage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sesame" and "sewage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs sewage". 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 #358,923 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.