Seize

How to spell seize

5 letters · 1 syllable

31 of the 76 people asked to spell seize in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is sieze. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

sieze seize

What people typed instead

• sieze10 people
• sease3 people
• seise3 people

How to pronounce seize

What does seize mean?

1. verbTo take hold of something suddenly and forcibly, or to take legal possession of it.

Seize in a sentence

• The opportunity is here, seize it.

• The police will seize any contraband.

• Seize the day before someone else does.

Where does seize come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French verb saisir, meaning 'to take possession of' or 'to put in legal possession', which English borrowed in the 1200s. The Old French term itself probably traces back to a Frankish or Germanic source related to setting or placing, glossed roughly as 'to make someone sit on a property' and so to install them as its owner, an idea still visible in modern legal English where a person 'seised' of land holds it. From the original legal sense of formally taking control, the meaning broadened to grabbing anything suddenly and forcibly, and later to non-physical grabbing such as seizing an opportunity. The spelling is the great trap here: seize is one of the rare words that breaks the familiar 'i before e' rhyme without a preceding c, so the correct order is 'ei', not the expected 'ie'. The related noun 'seizure' keeps the same stubborn vowel pattern.

How the word is built

• seize (single root from Old French saisir: to take possession of)

People who misspell seize also struggle with

Of the Spelling Garden players who got seize wrong the first time, this is how many also got each of these wrong.

• connoisseur 100% of them got it wrong
• mischief 75% of them got it wrong