sezvsspedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,041
“sez” frequency rank
#20,782
“sped” frequency rank
69823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sez sped
Definition Eye dialect spelling of says. simple past and past participle of speed

Where the eye mixes sez and sped

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

3 ch
sez
4 ch
sped

Look-alike desk: sez vs sped

A purely visual mix-up. sez (/sɛz/) and sped (/spɛd/) 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 69823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sez is recorded at frequency rank #49,041, classified as averb, pronounced /sɛz/. sped is at rank #20,782, tagged as averb, pronounced /spɛd/.

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 69823, this pair ranks #52,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sez vs sped

Shared letters: es. Private to "sez": z. Private to "sped": dp.

"sez" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sped" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spedpsed · sepd · spde · spedd · spped · ssped

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sez" and "sped" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɛz/ versus /spɛd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sez" or "sped"?
"sped" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,782 in our English list, against #49,041 for "sez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sez" and "sped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sez vs Sif". 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 #52,988 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