signvssiteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“sign” and “site” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#885
“sign” frequency rank
#613
“site” frequency rank
1498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sign site
Definition A visible fact that shows that something exists or may happen. The place where anything is fixed; situation; local position

Where the eye mixes sign and site

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sign
4 ch
site

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. sign (/saɪn/) and site (/saɪt/) 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 1498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sign is recorded at frequency rank #885, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɪn/. site is at rank #613, tagged as anoun, pronounced /saɪt/.

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 1498, this pair ranks #527,308 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sign vs site

Shared letters: is. Private to "sign": gn. Private to "site": et.

"sign" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "site" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signisgn · sgin · siggn · signn · ssign
  • siteiste · siet · sitte · ssite · stie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sign" and "site" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/saɪn/ versus /saɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sign" or "site"?
"site" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #613 in our English list, against #885 for "sign". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list