sirevssmeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#48,121
“sire” frequency rank
#40,334
“sme” frequency rank
88455
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sire sme
Definition senhor (como forma de tratamento a alguém superior) primeira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo byť

Letter map: sire vs sme

Shared letters muted; letters that set sire and sme apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sire runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sme's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sire
3 ch
sme

Role in the sentence - sire and sme

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sire is anoun and smeaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sire is recorded at frequency rank #48,121, classified as anoun. sme is at rank #40,334, 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 88455, this pair ranks #402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sire vs sme

Shared letters: es. Private to "sire": ir. Private to "sme": m.

"sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sme" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sire ← isre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sire" and "sme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sire" is a noun and "sme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sire" or "sme"?
"sme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,334 in our Portuguese list, against #48,121 for "sire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "sire" and "sme". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sire" and "sme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shire 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 #402 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