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Sign or sine?

sign is a noun meaning “A visible fact that shows that something exists or may happen”; sine is a noun meaning “In a right triangle, the ratio of the length of the side opposite an angle to…”. They sound the same (/saɪn/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sign is about 95 times as common as sine.

signorsine

What is the difference between sign and sine?

signsine
Part of speechnoun, verbnoun
Meaning

A visible fact that shows that something exists or may happen

An omen

To mark, to put or leave a mark on

In a right triangle, the ratio of the length of the side opposite an angle to the length of the hypotenuse

ExampleTheir angry expressions were a clear sign they didn't want to talknone recorded
Formssignssines
Pronunciation/saɪn/ /sɑe̯n/ [sɑe̯n]/saɪn/
In writing120 times per million words1.3 times per million words

Sources: sign and sine in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of sign and sine

sign

  1. 1

    noun A visible fact that shows that something exists or may happen

    Their angry expressions were a clear sign they didn't want to talk

  2. 2

    verb To mark, to put or leave a mark on

  3. 3

    noun An omen

    "It's a sign of the end of the world," the doom prophet said

  4. 4

    verb To validate or ratify (a document) by writing one's signature on it

  5. 5

    noun A property of the body that indicates a disease and, unlike a symptom, can be detected objectively by someone other than the patient

    Signs of disease are objective, whereas symptoms are subjective

  6. 6

    verb More generally, to write one's signature on (something) as a means of identification etc

    I forgot to sign that letter to my aunt

  7. 7

    noun A mark or another symbol used to represent something

    The sharp sign indicates that the pitch of the note is raised a half step

  8. 8

    verb To write (one's name) as a signature

    Just sign your name at the bottom there

sine

  1. 1

    noun In a right triangle, the ratio of the length of the side opposite an angle to the length of the hypotenuse

  2. 2

    noun Acronym of short interspersed element, a type of retrotransposon in genomics

  3. 3

    noun Acronym of selective inhibitors of nuclear export, a drug for epithelioid sarcoma

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, sign or sine?

sign appears 120 times per million words; sine 1.3 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words