sickvssindTell them apart

Which to use

“sick” and “sind” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,317
“sick” frequency rank
#48,796
“sind” frequency rank
94113
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sick sind
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sicken. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif à la forme active de sein.

Where the eye mixes sick and sind

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sick and sind follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
sick
4 ch
sind

Look-alike desk: sick vs sind

A purely visual mix-up. sick (\zɪk\) and sind (\zɪnt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94113, 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\. sind is at rank #48,796, tagged as averb, pronounced \zɪnt\.

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 94113, this pair ranks #1,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sick vs sind

Shared letters: is. Private to "sick": ck. Private to "sind": dn.

"sick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sick ← isck · scik · sicck · sickk · sikc · ssick
  • sind ← isnd · sidn · sindd · sinnd · snid · ssind

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sick" and "sind" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\zɪk\ versus \zɪnt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sick" or "sind"?
"sick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,317 in our French list, against #48,796 for "sind". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sind" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sick" and "sind" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sikh vs sind". 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 #1,842 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