suingvssunkConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#15,069
“suing” frequency rank
#10,617
“sunk” frequency rank
25686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suing sunk
Definition The act of one who sues for something. past participle of sink

Letter map: suing vs sunk

Shared letters muted; letters that set suing and sunk apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
suing
4 ch
sunk

Role in the sentence - suing and sunk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: suing is anoun and sunkaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suing is recorded at frequency rank #15,069, 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 25686, this pair ranks #392,408 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of suing vs sunk

Shared letters: nsu. Private to "suing": gi. Private to "sunk": k.

"suing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "sunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suingsiung · ssuing · suign · suingg · suinng · sunig
  • sunksnuk · ssunk · sukn · sunkk · sunnk · usnk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "suing" and "sunk" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suing" is a noun and "sunk" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "suing" or "sunk" show up more?
"sunk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,617 in our English list, against #15,069 for "suing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "suing" and "sunk". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "suing" 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 #392,408 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suing" and "sunk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suing vs sulking". 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 #392,408 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