seavssetConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,925
“sea” frequency rank
#4,348
“set” frequency rank
14273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sea set
Definition mar. conjunto

Letter map: sea vs set

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

3 ch
sea
3 ch
set

Spelling & dictionary notes on sea vs set

sea and set 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 a single letter - a in “sea” becomes t in “set”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sea is recorded at frequency rank #9,925, classified as anoun, pronounced ]. set is at rank #4,348, tagged as anoun.

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 14273, this pair ranks #57,876 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sea vs set

Shared letters: es. Private to "sea": a. Private to "set": t.

"sea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "set" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sea" and "set" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “sea” becomes t in “set”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sea" or "set" show up more?
"set" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,348 in our Portuguese list, against #9,925 for "sea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sea" and "set".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "set" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,876 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sea" and "set" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sea vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,876 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