spasmvsSPSTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,950
“spasm” frequency rank
#34,299
“SPS” frequency rank
70249
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spasm SPS
Definition A sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ. Initialism of supplementary policy statement.

Letter map: spasm vs SPS

Shared letters muted; letters that set spasm and SPS apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
spasm
3 ch
SPS

Pair insight - spasm / SPS

spasm and SPS are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spasm is recorded at frequency rank #35,950, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈspæz.m̩/. SPS is at rank #34,299, tagged as anoun.

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 70249, this pair ranks #51,295 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spasm vs SPS

Shared letters: ps. Private to "spasm": am. Private to "SPS": -.

"spasm" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "SPS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spasmpsasm · sapsm · spams · spasmm · spassm · sppasm · spsam · sspasm

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spasm" and "SPS" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "spasm" vs "SPS" - which ranks higher?
"SPS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,299 in our English list, against #35,950 for "spasm". 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 "spasm" and "SPS".

  • Full dictionary entry for "spasm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "SPS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,295 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spasm" and "SPS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "SPS 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 #51,295 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