Which to use
“sez” and “spew” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,041
- “sez” frequency rank
- #33,028
- “spew” frequency rank
- 82069
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sez | spew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Eye dialect spelling of says. | To eject forcibly and in a stream, |
Where the eye mixes sez and spew
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sez runs 3 letters (CVC) against spew's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sez with spew
A purely visual mix-up. sez (/sɛz/) and spew (/spjuː/) 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 82069, 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/. spew is at rank #33,028, tagged as averb, pronounced /spjuː/.
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 82069, this pair ranks #16,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sez vs spew
Shared letters: es. Private to "sez": z. Private to "spew": pw.
"sez" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "spew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- spew ← psew · sepw · speww · sppew · spwe · sspew
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sez" for "spew" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sez" vs "spew" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
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 "spew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sez" and "spew" 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 #16,465 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.