Which to use
“sez” is a verb and “spy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,041
- “sez” frequency rank
- #4,799
- “spy” frequency rank
- 53840
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sez | spy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Eye dialect spelling of says. | A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage). |
Where the eye mixes sez and spy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sez is /sɛz/ while spy is /spaɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53840, 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/. spy is at rank #4,799, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spaɪ/.
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 53840, this pair ranks #145,759 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sez vs spy
Shared letters: s. Private to "sez": ez. Private to "spy": py.
"sez" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV