# surmise vs surprise

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### surmise
*noun · IPA /sɜːˈmaɪz/ · frequency rank #43,399*
Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.

### surprise
*noun · IPA /səˈpɹaɪz/ · frequency rank #1,841*
Something unexpected.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/surmise-vs-surprise