seavssicConfusable pair

Quick tell: sea is a noun, sic is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sea” is a noun and “sic” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,925
“sea” frequency rank
#7,836
“sic” frequency rank
17761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sea sic
Definition mar. assim

Letter map: sea vs sic

Shared letters muted; letters that set sea and sic apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
sea
3 ch
sic

Part-of-speech tell for sea / sic

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sea is anoun and sicanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sea is recorded at frequency rank #9,925, classified as anoun, pronounced ]. sic is at rank #7,836, tagged as anadv, pronounced /siːk/.

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 17761, this pair ranks #53,400 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sea vs sic

Shared letters: s. Private to "sea": ae. Private to "sic": ci.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sea" and "sic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sea" is a noun and "sic" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sea" or "sic"?
"sic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,836 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,400 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sea" and "sic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sea vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,400 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