sisvssuitsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,501
“sis” frequency rank
#4,719
“suits” frequency rank
17220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sis suits
Definition Clipping of sister. plural of suit

Where the eye mixes sis and suits

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

3 ch
sis
5 ch
suits

Why the eye confuses sis with suits

A purely visual mix-up. sis (/sɪs/) and suits (/s(j)uːts/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sis is recorded at frequency rank #12,501, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɪs/. suits is at rank #4,719, tagged as anoun, pronounced /s(j)uːts/.

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 17220, this pair ranks #452,844 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sis vs suits

Shared letters: is. Private to "sis": -. Private to "suits": tu.

"sis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "suits" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suitssiuts · ssuits · suist · suitss · suitts · sutis · usits

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sis" and "suits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɪs/ versus /s(j)uːts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sis" vs "suits" - which ranks higher?
"suits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,719 in our English list, against #12,501 for "sis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #452,844 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sis" and "suits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sis vs suds". 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 #452,844 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