sookvssouConfusable pair

Quick tell: sook is a verb, sou is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sook” is a verb and “sou” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,187
“sook” frequency rank
#35,525
“sou” frequency rank
81712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sook sou
Definition Alternative spelling of suck. An old French copper coin equal to one twentieth of a livre or twelve deniers; one sou is to the livre as one shilling is to the pound.

Letter map: sook vs sou

Shared letters muted; letters that set sook and sou apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sook runs 4 letters (CVVC) against sou's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sook
3 ch
sou

Role in the sentence - sook and sou

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sook is averb and souanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sook is recorded at frequency rank #46,187, classified as averb. sou is at rank #35,525, tagged as anoun, pronounced /suː/.

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 81712, this pair ranks #17,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sook vs sou

Shared letters: os. Private to "sook": k. Private to "sou": u.

"sook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sou" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sook ← osok · sok · soko · sookk · ssook

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sook" for "sou" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sook" is a verb and "sou" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sook" vs "sou" - which ranks higher?
"sou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,525 in our English list, against #46,187 for "sook". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sook" vs "sou" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sook" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sook" and "sou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soca vs sook". 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 #17,129 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