Español homophones

cien/sien

"cien" is a num; "sien" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #33 of 387 Spanish groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "cien" arrives as a num, while "sien" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "cien" is 4 letters, "sien" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across cien, sien: ein. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • cien

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory cein · private c

  • sien

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory eins · private s

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "cien" when you mean: Diez veces diez.
  • Write "sien" when you mean: Parte a cada lado del cráneo comprendida entre la oreja, la mejilla y el ojo.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • cienccien · cein · cienn · icen
  • sienisen · sienn · ssien

Each spelling

cien

num · /ˈsjẽn/ · #2,593 frequency

Diez veces diez.

sien

noun · /ˈsjẽn/ · #28,948 frequency

Parte a cada lado del cráneo comprendida entre la oreja, la mejilla y el ojo.

Nearby Spanish homophone groups

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list