sec
/sɛk/
"sec" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sec” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,268) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #4,268
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Second, ¹⁄₆₀ of a minute.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sec · sec · English
sec · rank #4,268 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,268
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sean
Nearest frequency peer: sean (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “sec”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- ruin
ruin
95,736 corpus weight
- Saudi
Saudi
95,735 corpus weight
- sean
sean
95,734 corpus weight
- sec
sec
95,733 corpus weight
- secrets
secrets
95,732 corpus weight
- slave
slave
95,731 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “sec” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sec |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɛk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #4,268 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “sec”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for sec is neighbouring look-alikes ("so", "SI", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /sɛk/. Frequency #4,268 among 6,566 “S” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
No generated misspelling entries exist for sec in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "SI", "SS", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is sec, spelled S-E-C.
Definition
- 1Second, ¹⁄₆₀ of a minute.
- 2Clipping of second (“short indeterminate period of time”).
- 3Clipping of secretary.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sec appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is not permissible to use abbreviations for unit symbols or unit names, such as sec (for either s or second), sq. mm (for either mm² or square millimetre), cc (for either cm³ or cubic centimetre), or mps (for either m/s or metre per second).
And the sloping of the shoulder / From the slender shapely neck / Makes you long to come behind her and to hold her / Just a sec.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sec"?
What does "sec" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sec"?
How do you pronounce "sec"?
What language does "sec" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sec", not the corpus desk frequency band.