sookvsstowWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,187
“sook” frequency rank
#26,977
“stow” frequency rank
73164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sook stow
Definition Alternative spelling of suck. A place, stead.

Letter map: sook vs stow

Shared letters muted; letters that set sook and stow apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sook (CVVC) and stow (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sook
4 ch
stow

Role in the sentence - sook and stow

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sook is averb and stowanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sook is recorded at frequency rank #46,187, classified as averb. stow is at rank #26,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stoʊ/.

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 73164, this pair ranks #40,539 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sook vs stow

Shared letters: os. Private to "sook": k. Private to "stow": tw.

"sook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "stow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sook ← osok · sok · soko · sookk · ssook
  • stow ← sotw · sstow · stoww · sttow · stwo · tsow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sook" for "stow" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sook" is a verb and "stow" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sook" vs "stow" - which ranks higher?
"stow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,977 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 "stow" 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 "stow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,539 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sook" and "stow" 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 #40,539 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