safevssedeConfusable pair

Quick tell: safe is a verb, sede is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“safe” is a verb and “sede” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,193
“safe” frequency rank
#1,132
“sede” frequency rank
27325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature safe sede
Definition primeira ou terceira pessoa do presente subjuntivo de safar local onde funciona uma organização

Where the eye mixes safe and sede

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

4 ch
safe
4 ch
sede

Why the eye confuses safe with sede

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: safe is /seɪf/, enPR: sāf while sede is /ˈsɛ.ʤɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

safe is recorded at frequency rank #26,193, classified as averb, pronounced /seɪf/, enPR: sāf. sede is at rank #1,132, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ʤɪ/.

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 27325, this pair ranks #41,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of safe vs sede

Shared letters: es. Private to "safe": af. Private to "sede": d.

"safe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • safeasfe · saef · saffe · sfae · ssafe
  • sedeesde · sdee · sedde · seed · ssede

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "safe" and "sede" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "safe" is a verb and "sede" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "safe" or "sede" show up more?
"sede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,132 in our Portuguese list, against #26,193 for "safe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "safe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sede" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "safe" and "sede" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "safe vs Sau". 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 #41,670 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