sacvssickConfusable pair

Quick tell: sac is a noun, sick is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sac” is a noun and “sick” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,816
“sac” frequency rank
#31,561
“sick” frequency rank
55377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sac sick
Definition saco, bolsa doente

Where the eye mixes sac and sick

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sac
4 ch
sick

Look-alike desk: sac vs sick

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sac is \sak\ while sick is /sɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sac is recorded at frequency rank #23,816, classified as anoun, pronounced \sak\. sick is at rank #31,561, tagged as anadj, pronounced /sɪk/.

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 55377, this pair ranks #10,624 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sac vs sick

Shared letters: cs. Private to "sac": a. Private to "sick": ik.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sac" and "sick" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sac" is a noun and "sick" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sac" or "sick" show up more?
"sac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,816 in our Portuguese list, against #31,561 for "sick". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sac" 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 #10,624 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sac" and "sick" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sick vs sire". 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 #10,624 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list