Which to use
“shit” is a noun and “sic” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #316
- “shit” frequency rank
- #12,684
- “sic” frequency rank
- 13000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shit | sic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Usually solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels; feces. | Thus; as written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source. |
Where the eye mixes shit and sic
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shit is /ʃɪt/ while sic is /sɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shit is recorded at frequency rank #316, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɪt/. sic is at rank #12,684, tagged as anadv, pronounced /sɪk/.
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 13000, this pair ranks #478,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of shit vs sic
Shared letters: is. Private to "shit": ht. Private to "sic": c.
"shit" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "sic" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shit ← hsit · shhit · shitt · shti · siht · sshit