senseivssentemWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sensei is a noun, sentem is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sensei” is a noun and “sentem” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,843
“sensei” frequency rank
#2,806
“sentem” frequency rank
22649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sensei sentem
Definition instrutor de arte marcial terceira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo sentir

Letter map: sensei vs sentem

Shared letters muted; letters that set sensei and sentem apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
sensei
6 ch
sentem

Part-of-speech tell for sensei / sentem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sensei is anoun and sentemaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sensei is recorded at frequency rank #19,843, classified as anoun, pronounced /sẽ.ˈsej/. sentem is at rank #2,806, 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 22649, this pair ranks #47,342 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sensei vs sentem

Shared letters: ens. Private to "sensei": i. Private to "sentem": mt.

"sensei" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "sentem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • senseiesnsei · senesi · sennsei · sensie · senssei · sesnei · snesei · ssensei
  • sentemesntem · senetm · senntem · sentemm · sentme · senttem · setnem · snetem

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sensei" and "sentem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sensei" is a noun and "sentem" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sensei" or "sentem"?
"sentem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,806 in our Portuguese list, against #19,843 for "sensei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "sensei" and "sentem". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sensei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sentem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,342 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sensei" and "sentem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sense vs sensei". 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 #47,342 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