shopvssopWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,408
“shop” frequency rank
#34,293
“sop” frequency rank
35701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shop sop
Definition An establishment that sells goods or services to the public; originally only a physical location, but now a virtual establishment as well. Something entirely soaked.

Where the eye mixes shop and sop

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
shop
3 ch
sop

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. shop (/ʃɒp/) and sop (/sɒp/) 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 35701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shop is recorded at frequency rank #1,408, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɒp/. sop is at rank #34,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɒp/.

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 35701, this pair ranks #309,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shop vs sop

Shared letters: ops. Private to "shop": h. Private to "sop": -.

"shop" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "sop" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shophsop · shhop · shopp · shpo · sohp · sshop

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shop" and "sop" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ʃɒp/ versus /sɒp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "shop" or "sop"?
"shop" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,408 in our English list, against #34,293 for "sop". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "shop" and "sop". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shop" and "sop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sif vs sop". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list