Which to use
“sewed” and “sowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,413
- “sewed” frequency rank
- #47,920
- “sowed” frequency rank
- 81333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sewed | sowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of sew | simple past and past participle of sow |
Where the eye mixes sewed and sowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sewed and sowed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between sewed and sowed
A purely visual mix-up. sewed (/ˈsoʊd/) and sowed (/səʊd/) 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 - e in “sewed” becomes o in “sowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sewed is recorded at frequency rank #33,413, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsoʊd/. sowed is at rank #47,920, tagged as averb, pronounced /səʊd/.
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 81333, this pair ranks #17,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sewed vs sowed
Shared letters: desw. Private to "sewed": -. Private to "sowed": o.
"sewed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sewed" for "sowed" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sewed" or "sowed"?
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 "sewed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sewed" and "sowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sone vs sowed". 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 #17,870 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.