so'svsSoATell them apart

Quick tell: so's is a contraction, SoA is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“so's” is a contraction and “SoA” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,171
“so's” frequency rank
#35,088
“SoA” frequency rank
73259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature so's SoA
Definition So that, in order that. Initialism of Society of Authors, a United Kingdom trade union.

Letter map: so's vs SoA

Shared letters muted; letters that set so's and SoA apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
so's
3 ch
SoA

Part-of-speech tell for so's / SoA

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: so's is acontraction and SoAaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

so's is recorded at frequency rank #38,171, classified as acontraction. SoA is at rank #35,088, tagged as aname.

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 73259, this pair ranks #40,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of so's vs SoA

Shared letters: os. Private to "so's": -. Private to "SoA": a.

"so's" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "SoA" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "so's" and "SoA" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "so's" is a contraction and "SoA" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "so's" or "SoA"?
"SoA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,088 in our English list, against #38,171 for "so's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "so's" and "SoA".

  • Full dictionary entry for "so's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "SoA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "so's" and "SoA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "so's vs suds". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,216 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