sickvssinWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sick is a verb, sin is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sick” is a verb and “sin” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,317
“sick” frequency rank
#16,237
“sin” frequency rank
61554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sick sin
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sicken. Sinus.

Letter map: sick vs sin

Shared letters muted; letters that set sick and sin apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
sick
3 ch
sin

Part-of-speech tell for sick / sin

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sick is averb and sinasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sick is recorded at frequency rank #45,317, classified as averb, pronounced \zɪk\. sin is at rank #16,237, tagged as asymbol.

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 61554, this pair ranks #91,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sick vs sin

Shared letters: is. Private to "sick": ck. Private to "sin": n.

"sick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sickisck · scik · sicck · sickk · sikc · ssick

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sick" and "sin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sick" is a verb and "sin" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sick" vs "sin" - which ranks higher?
"sin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,237 in our French list, against #45,317 for "sick". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "sick" vs "sin" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sick" and "sin" 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 #91,627 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list