sunkvssuraTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,617
“sunk” frequency rank
#49,659
“sura” frequency rank
60276
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sunk sura
Definition past participle of sink Any of the 114 chapters of the Quran.

Where the eye mixes sunk and sura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sunk
4 ch
sura

Look-alike desk: sunk vs sura

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sunk is /sʌŋk/ while sura is /ˈsʊə.ɹə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sunk is recorded at frequency rank #10,617, classified as averb, pronounced /sʌŋk/. sura is at rank #49,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsʊə.ɹə/.

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 60276, this pair ranks #101,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sunk vs sura

Shared letters: su. Private to "sunk": kn. Private to "sura": ar.

"sunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sunksnuk · ssunk · sukn · sunkk · sunnk · usnk
  • surasrua · ssura · suar · surra · usra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sunk" for "sura" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sunk" is a verb and "sura" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sunk" or "sura" show up more?
"sunk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,617 in our English list, against #49,659 for "sura". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sunk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sunk" and "sura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suds 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 #101,113 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