suvssunkConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#8,094
“su” frequency rank
#10,617
“sunk” frequency rank
18711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature su sunk
Definition Alternative form of xu (“former Vietnamese currency”). past participle of sink

Letter map: su vs sunk

Shared letters muted; letters that set su and sunk apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
su
4 ch
sunk

Part-of-speech tell for su / sunk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: su is anoun and sunkaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “su” sits inside “sunk”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

su is recorded at frequency rank #8,094, classified as anoun. sunk is at rank #10,617, tagged as averb, pronounced /sʌŋk/.

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 18711, this pair ranks #443,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of su vs sunk

Shared letters: su. Private to "su": -. Private to "sunk": kn.

"su" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "sunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sunksnuk · ssunk · sukn · sunkk · sunnk · usnk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "su" and "sunk" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "su" is a noun and "sunk" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "su" vs "sunk" - which ranks higher?
"su" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,094 in our English list, against #10,617 for "sunk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "su" vs "sunk" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "su" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sunk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #443,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "su" and "sunk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sunk 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 #443,053 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