Which to use
“sown” is a verb and “span” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,976
- “sown” frequency rank
- #6,416
- “span” frequency rank
- 37392
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sown | span |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of sow | The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length. |
Where the eye mixes sown and span
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sown with span
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sown is /soʊn/ while span is /spæn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sown is recorded at frequency rank #30,976, classified as averb, pronounced /soʊn/. span is at rank #6,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spæn/.
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 37392, this pair ranks #294,957 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sown vs span
Shared letters: ns. Private to "sown": ow. Private to "span": ap.
"sown" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "span" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sown" and "span" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sown" vs "span" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sown" and "span" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "span" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,957 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sown" and "span" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soca vs sown". 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 #294,957 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.