Which to use
“sifted” is an adjective and “sighted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,049
- “sifted” frequency rank
- #14,218
- “sighted” frequency rank
- 63267
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sifted | sighted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having undergone sifting. | simple past and past participle of sight |
Letter map: sifted vs sighted
Shared letters muted; letters that set sifted and sighted apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. sifted runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against sighted's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - sifted and sighted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sifted is anadjective and sightedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sifted is recorded at frequency rank #49,049, classified as anadj. sighted is at rank #14,218, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsaɪtəd/.
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 63267, this pair ranks #83,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sifted vs sighted
Shared letters: deist. Private to "sifted": f. Private to "sighted": gh.
"sifted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "sighted" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sifted" for "sighted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sifted" or "sighted"?
After this comparison
You've compared "sifted" and "sighted". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "sifted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sighted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #83,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sifted" and "sighted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sifted vs stilted". 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 #83,901 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.