stumpsvssumpWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,923
“stumps” frequency rank
#41,400
“sump” frequency rank
66323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stumps sump
Definition close of play (when the stumps are pulled out of the ground by the umpires) A hollow or pit into which liquid drains, such as a cesspool, cesspit or sink.

Letter map: stumps vs sump

Shared letters muted; letters that set stumps and sump apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. stumps runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against sump's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
stumps
4 ch
sump

Spelling & dictionary notes on stumps vs sump

stumps and sump 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 66323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stumps is recorded at frequency rank #24,923, classified as anoun. sump is at rank #41,400, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʌmp/.

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 66323, this pair ranks #68,566 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of stumps vs sump

Shared letters: mpsu. Private to "stumps": t. Private to "sump": -.

"stumps" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "sump" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stumpssstumps · stmups · sttumps · stummps · stumpps · stumpss · stumsp · stupms
  • sumpsmup · ssump · summp · sumpp · supm · usmp

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stumps" and "sump" 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: "stumps" vs "sump" - which ranks higher?
"stumps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,923 in our English list, against #41,400 for "sump". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stumps" and "sump".

  • Full dictionary entry for "stumps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sump" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,566 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stumps" and "sump" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sump 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 #68,566 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