Which to use
“son” and “suns” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #534
- “son” frequency rank
- #13,249
- “suns” frequency rank
- 13783
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | son | suns |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | One's male offspring. | plural of sun |
Where the eye mixes son and suns
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: son vs suns
A purely visual mix-up. son (/sʌn/) and suns (/sʌnz/) 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 13783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
son is recorded at frequency rank #534, classified as anoun, pronounced /sʌn/. suns is at rank #13,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʌnz/.
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 13783, this pair ranks #473,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of son vs suns
Shared letters: ns. Private to "son": o. Private to "suns": u.
"son" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "suns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- suns ← snus · ssuns · sunns · sunss · susn · usns
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "son" for "suns" ever safe?
Frequency check: "son" vs "suns" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "son" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #473,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "son" and "suns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suns 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 #473,846 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.