SPSvsspukWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: SPS is a abbrev, spuk is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“SPS” is an abbrev and “spuk” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,839
“SPS” frequency rank
#27,498
“spuk” frequency rank
70337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature SPS spuk
Definition schizoide Persönlichkeitsstörung 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spuken

Letter map: SPS vs spuk

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

3 ch
SPS
4 ch
spuk

Role in the sentence - SPS and spuk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: SPS is anabbrev and spukaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

SPS is recorded at frequency rank #42,839, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. spuk is at rank #27,498, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃpuːk].

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 70337, this pair ranks #449,349 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of SPS vs spuk

Shared letters: ps. Private to "SPS": -. Private to "spuk": ku.

"SPS" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "spuk" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spuk ← psuk · spku · sppuk · spukk · sspuk · supk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "SPS" for "spuk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "SPS" is an abbrev and "spuk" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "SPS" or "spuk" show up more?
"spuk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,498 in our German list, against #42,839 for "SPS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "SPS" vs "spuk" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "SPS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spuk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #449,349 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "SPS" and "spuk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs SPS". 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 #449,349 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list