Which to use
“spud” and “suds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,419
- “spud” frequency rank
- #49,655
- “suds” frequency rank
- 92074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spud | suds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A potato. | Lather; foam or froth formed by mixing soap and water. |
Where the eye mixes spud and suds
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. spud (CCVC) and suds (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between spud and suds
A purely visual mix-up. spud (/spʌd/) and suds (/sʌdz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spud is recorded at frequency rank #42,419, classified as anoun, pronounced /spʌd/. suds is at rank #49,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʌdz/.
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 92074, this pair ranks #2,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of spud vs suds
Shared letters: dsu. Private to "spud": p. Private to "suds": -.
"spud" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "suds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spud" for "suds" ever safe?
Frequency check: "spud" vs "suds" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "spud" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,862 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spud" and "suds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suds 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 #2,862 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.