Which to use
“sem” is a preposition and “set” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #69
- “sem” frequency rank
- #4,348
- “set” frequency rank
- 4417
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sem | set |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | indicativa de carência ou ausência | conjunto |
Letter map: sem vs set
Shared letters muted; letters that set sem and set apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for sem / set
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sem is apreposition and setanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “sem” becomes t in “set”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. 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 4417, this pair ranks #70,498 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sem vs set
Shared letters: es. Private to "sem": m. Private to "set": t.
"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "set" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sem" and "set" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sem" or "set" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "sem" and "set". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "sem" 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 #70,498 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sem" and "set" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs set". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #70,498 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.