surevsSusWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#202
“sure” frequency rank
#27,667
“Sus” frequency rank
27869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sure Sus
Definition Physically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable. Synonym of Shush (“city in Khuzestan, Iran”).

Letter map: sure vs Sus

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

4 ch
sure
3 ch
Sus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sure is anadjective and Susaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sure is recorded at frequency rank #202, classified as anadj, pronounced /ʃɔː(ɹ)/. 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 27869, this pair ranks #375,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sure vs Sus

Shared letters: su. Private to "sure": er. Private to "Sus": -.

"sure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Sus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suresrue · ssure · suer · surre · usre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sure" and "Sus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sure" is an adjective and "Sus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sure" or "Sus"?
"sure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #202 in our English list, against #27,667 for "Sus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list