SOTU

noun

"sotu" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“SOTU” is uncommon English (frequency #91,005 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,005
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The annual State of the Union address of the President of the United States.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sotu · SOTU · English

SOTU · rank #91,005 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,005
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Smet

Nearest frequency peer: Smet (-4 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “SOTU”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “SOTU” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for SOTU
PropertyValue
HeadwordSOTU
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters4
Frequency rank#91,005
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “SOTU” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).SOTUfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Smet” (#91,001), “spiciness” (#91,009), “spiderweb” (#91,010). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “SOTU” is #91,005. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

SOTU is uncommon English at frequency #91,005 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The annual State of the Union address of the President of the United States.".

SOTU doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is SOTU, spelled S-O-T-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    The annual State of the Union address of the President of the United States.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how SOTU appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He intends to use the SOTU message as nothing more that another Hollywood stunt similar to the pep rally he had on the WH lawn after the impeachment vote.
  2. Bush won't be stressing those particular points as he hits the pre-SOTU stump circuit, but the "if it's good enough for 2006 it's good enough for now"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "SOTU"?
"SOTU" is spelled S-O-T-U.
What does "SOTU" mean?
As a noun, "SOTU" means: The annual State of the Union address of the President of the United States.
What language does "SOTU" come from?
"SOTU" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "SOTU", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list