Which to use
“shut” and “sup” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,738
- “shut” frequency rank
- #13,818
- “sup” frequency rank
- 15556
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shut | sup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To close, in various senses. | To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon. |
Where the eye mixes shut and sup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: shut vs sup
A purely visual mix-up. shut (/ʃʌt/) and sup (/sʌp/) 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 15556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shut is recorded at frequency rank #1,738, classified as averb, pronounced /ʃʌt/. 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 15556, this pair ranks #463,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of shut vs sup
Shared letters: su. Private to "shut": ht. Private to "sup": p.
"shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shut ← hsut · shhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shut" and "sup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shut" or "sup" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "shut" and "sup" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shut" 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 #463,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shut" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sup vs sura". 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 #463,263 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.