sagevssmeConfusable pair

Which to use

“sage” and “sme” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,548
“sage” frequency rank
#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
71882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sage sme
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo sagen primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: sage vs sme

Shared letters muted; letters that set sage and sme apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sage runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sme's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sage
3 ch
sme

Spelling & dictionary notes on sage vs sme

sage and sme are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sage is recorded at frequency rank #31,548, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈzaːɡə/. sme is at rank #40,334, tagged as averb.

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 71882, this pair ranks #3,219 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sage vs sme

Shared letters: es. Private to "sage": ag. Private to "sme": m.

"sage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sage ← asge · saeg · sagge · sgae · ssage

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sage" and "sme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "sage" vs "sme" - which ranks higher?
"sage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,548 in our Portuguese list, against #40,334 for "sme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sage" and "sme".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,219 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sage" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sme". 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 #3,219 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