shippervssupperConfusable pair

Which to use

“shipper” and “supper” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,720
“shipper” frequency rank
#10,618
“supper” frequency rank
39338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shipper supper
Definition A seaman; mariner; skipper. Food consumed before going to bed.

Where the eye mixes shipper and supper

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
shipper
6 ch
supper

Visual trap between shipper and supper

A purely visual mix-up. shipper (/ˈʃɪp.ə(ɹ)/) and supper (/ˈsʌpə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shipper is recorded at frequency rank #28,720, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɪp.ə(ɹ)/. supper is at rank #10,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsʌpə/.

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 39338, this pair ranks #277,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shipper vs supper

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "shipper": hi. Private to "supper": u.

"shipper" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "supper" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shipperhsipper · shhipper · shipepr · shiper · shipperr · shippre · shpiper · sihpper
  • supperspuper · ssupper · supepr · supperr · suppre · uspper

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shipper" for "supper" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃɪp.ə(ɹ)/ versus /ˈsʌpə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "shipper" vs "supper" - which ranks higher?
"supper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,618 in our English list, against #28,720 for "shipper". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shipper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "supper" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shipper" and "supper" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shaper vs shipper". 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 #277,623 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list