supvsSusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sup is a verb, Sus is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sup” is a verb and “Sus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,818
“sup” frequency rank
#27,667
“Sus” frequency rank
41485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sup Sus
Definition To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon. Synonym of Shush (“city in Khuzestan, Iran”).

Letter map: sup vs Sus

Shared letters muted; letters that set sup and Sus apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
sup
3 ch
Sus

Role in the sentence - sup and Sus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sup is averb and Susaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - p in “sup” becomes s in “Sus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sup is recorded at frequency rank #13,818, classified as averb, pronounced /sʌp/. Sus is at rank #27,667, tagged as aname.

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 41485, this pair ranks #257,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sup vs Sus

Shared letters: su. Private to "sup": p. Private to "Sus": -.

"sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sup" and "Sus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sup" is a verb and "Sus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sup" or "Sus" show up more?
"sup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,818 in our English list, against #27,667 for "Sus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sup" vs "Sus" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sup" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sup" and "Sus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sura vs Sus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #257,946 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