Which to use
“sieve” and “slave” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,084
- “sieve” frequency rank
- #4,270
- “slave” frequency rank
- 33354
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sieve | slave |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid. | A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control. |
Where the eye mixes sieve and slave
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sieve vs slave
A purely visual mix-up. sieve (/sɪv/) and slave (/sleɪv/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sieve is recorded at frequency rank #29,084, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɪv/. slave is at rank #4,270, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sleɪv/.
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 33354, this pair ranks #330,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sieve vs slave
Shared letters: esv. Private to "sieve": i. Private to "slave": al.
"sieve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "slave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sieve" and "slave" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "sieve" vs "slave" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sieve" and "slave" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sieve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "slave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #330,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sieve" and "slave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sieg vs sieve". 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 #330,184 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.