Which to use
“shep” is a noun and “sup” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,582
- “shep” frequency rank
- #13,818
- “sup” frequency rank
- 44400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shep | sup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronunciation spelling of ship. | To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon. |
Letter map: shep vs sup
Shared letters muted; letters that set shep and sup apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for shep / sup
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shep is anoun and supaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shep is recorded at frequency rank #30,582, classified as anoun. sup is at rank #13,818, tagged as averb, pronounced /sʌp/.
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 44400, this pair ranks #230,906 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shep vs sup
Shared letters: ps. Private to "shep": eh. Private to "sup": u.
"shep" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shep ← hsep · sehp · shepp · shhep · shpe · sshep
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shep" for "sup" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shep" vs "sup" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "shep" vs "sup" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "shep" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,906 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shep" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "SDP vs shep". 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 #230,906 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.