Which to use
“sic” is an adverb and “sick” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,132
- “sic” frequency rank
- #45,317
- “sick” frequency rank
- 56449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sic | sick |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tel que cela a été dit ou écrit, sans modification, aussi étrange ou incorrect que cela paraisse. Il s’utilise le plus souvent en italique et entre crochets pour confirmer l’exactitude de la citation d’un texte, même dans le cas d’une erreur manifeste, d’une faute de langue ou de propos choquants. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sicken. |
Where the eye mixes sic and sick
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sic vs sick
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sic is \sik\ while sick is \zɪk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sic” sits inside “sick”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sic is recorded at frequency rank #11,132, classified as anadv, pronounced \sik\. sick is at rank #45,317, tagged as averb, pronounced \zɪk\.
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 56449, this pair ranks #121,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sic vs sick
Shared letters: cis. Private to "sic": -. Private to "sick": k.
"sic" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sick ← isck · scik · sicck · sickk · sikc · ssick
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sic" and "sick" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sic" or "sick" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sic" and "sick" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sick" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #121,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sic" and "sick" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sicav vs sick". 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 #121,032 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.