Which to use
“sued” and “sunk” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,360
- “sued” frequency rank
- #10,617
- “sunk” frequency rank
- 18977
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sued | sunk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of sue | past participle of sink |
Where the eye mixes sued and sunk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sued vs sunk
A purely visual mix-up. sued (/sjuːd/) and sunk (/sʌŋk/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sued is recorded at frequency rank #8,360, classified as averb, pronounced /sjuːd/. 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 18977, this pair ranks #441,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sued vs sunk
Shared letters: su. Private to "sued": de. Private to "sunk": kn.
"sued" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sued" and "sunk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sued" or "sunk" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sued" and "sunk" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sued" 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 #441,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sued" 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 #441,316 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.