Which to use
“spout” and “sprout” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,218
- “spout” frequency rank
- #25,219
- “sprout” frequency rank
- 50437
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spout | sprout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged. | A new growth of or on a plant, whether from seed or other parts. |
Where the eye mixes spout and sprout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. spout runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against sprout's 6 (CCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: spout vs sprout
A purely visual mix-up. spout (/spaʊt/) and sprout (/spɹaʊt/) 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 50437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spout is recorded at frequency rank #25,218, classified as anoun, pronounced /spaʊt/. sprout is at rank #25,219, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spɹaʊt/.
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 50437, this pair ranks #174,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spout vs sprout
Shared letters: opstu. Private to "spout": -. Private to "sprout": r.
"spout" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "sprout" · 6 letters · shape CCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spout" and "sprout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "spout" or "sprout" show up more?
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 "spout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sprout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spout" and "sprout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spout vs swot". 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 #174,260 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.