Which to use
“sinker” and “sitter” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,779
- “sinker” frequency rank
- #23,100
- “sitter” frequency rank
- 69879
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sinker | sitter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That which sinks or descends. | Someone who sits, e.g. for a portrait. |
Where the eye mixes sinker and sitter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sinker and sitter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between sinker and sitter
A purely visual mix-up. sinker (/ˈsɪŋkə(ɹ)/) and sitter (/ˈsɪtə/) 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 69879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sinker is recorded at frequency rank #46,779, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪŋkə(ɹ)/. sitter is at rank #23,100, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪtə/.
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 69879, this pair ranks #52,751 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sinker vs sitter
Shared letters: eirs. Private to "sinker": kn. Private to "sitter": t.
"sinker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "sitter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sinker" for "sitter" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sinker" vs "sitter" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sinker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sitter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,751 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sinker" and "sitter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "silken vs sinker". 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 #52,751 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.