sem vs sic, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#69
“sem” frequency rank: #7,836
“sic” frequency rank: 7905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sem	sic
Definition	indicativa de carência ou ausência	assim

Where the eye mixes sem and sic

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

sem

3 ch

sic

Look-alike desk: sem vs sic

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sem is /sɐ̃j̃/ while sic is /siːk/. 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 (preposition vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sem is recorded at frequency rank #69, classified as aprep, pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. 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 7905, this pair ranks #66,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sem vs sic

Shared letters: s. Private to "sem": em. Private to "sic": ci.

"sem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "sic" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sem" and "sic" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sem" is a preposition and "sic" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "sem" vs "sic" - which ranks higher?

"sem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #69 in our Portuguese list, against #7,836 for "sic". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sem" and "sic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "sem" 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 #66,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sem" and "sic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sic". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.