sickvssinWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sick is a adjective, sin is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sick” is an adjective and “sin” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,561
“sick” frequency rank
#8,687
“sin” frequency rank
40248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sick sin
Definition doente aquilo, aquele

Letter map: sick vs sin

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

4 ch
sick
3 ch
sin

Part-of-speech tell for sick / sin

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sick is anadjective and sinapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sick is recorded at frequency rank #31,561, classified as anadj, pronounced /sɪk/. sin is at rank #8,687, tagged as apron.

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 40248, this pair ranks #25,907 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sick vs sin

Shared letters: is. Private to "sick": ck. Private to "sin": n.

"sick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sickisck · scik · sicck · sickk · sikc · ssick

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sick" and "sin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sick" is an adjective and "sin" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sick" vs "sin" - which ranks higher?
"sin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,687 in our Portuguese list, against #31,561 for "sick". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "sick" vs "sin" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,907 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sick" and "sin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sick vs sire". 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 #25,907 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