sic
/sɪk/adverb, verb
sic is spelled S-I-C: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sic vs sick” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As an adverb, sic means “Thus; as written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sic?
| Letters | 3: S-I-C |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sic?
Sic appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sic?
- /sɪk/
Sic has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-sick.ogg, En-us-sick.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sic
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: sick (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: sick.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sic?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sic.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: cis.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sic
- sics present, singular, he/she/it
- siccing participle, present
- sicced participle, past
- sicc
- sick
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sic mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Thus; as written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source.
- 2
Used in the manner of scare quotes
verb
- 1
To mark with a bracketed sic.
- 2
To incite an attack by, especially a dog or dogs.
He sicced his dog on me!
- 3
To set upon; to chase; to attack.
Sic ’em, Mitzi.
noun
- 1
Initialism of second-in-command.
- 2
Initialism of School Improvement Council.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sic |
| German | sic, so , hetzen , fassen |
| Portuguese | sic |
| Spanish | sic , azuzar, achuchar, jalear, aupar, ajotar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sic come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin sīc (“thus, so”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).