Which to use
“sully” and “supply” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,227
- “sully” frequency rank
- #1,651
- “supply” frequency rank
- 26878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sully | supply |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To soil or stain; to dirty. | To provide (something), to make (something) available for use. |
Where the eye mixes sully and supply
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sully runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against supply's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sully with supply
A purely visual mix-up. sully (/ˈsʌli/) and supply (/səˈplaɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sully is recorded at frequency rank #25,227, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsʌli/. supply is at rank #1,651, tagged as averb, pronounced /səˈplaɪ/.
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 26878, this pair ranks #383,363 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sully vs supply
Shared letters: lsuy. Private to "sully": -. Private to "supply": p.
"sully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "supply" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sully" and "supply" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "sully" vs "supply" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sully" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "supply" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,363 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sully" and "supply" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sully vs surry". 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 #383,363 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.