sue
/sjuː/verb
sue is spelled S-U-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, sue means “To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal (civil) action” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sue?
| Letters | 3: S-U-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sue?
Sue appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sue?
- /sjuː/
- /sɪu̯/
- /suː/
Sue has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sue.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sue
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: Sioux (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sue?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sue.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: use, ues.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sue
- sues present, singular, he/she/it
- suing participle, present
- sued participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sue mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal (civil) action.
sue someone for selling a faulty product
- 2
To seek by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead.
The king of Bimsa sued for peace after Nynal's armies overran his territory; he knew any further resistance would only harm the common people.
- 3
To clean (the beak, etc.).
- 4
To leave high and dry on shore.
to sue a ship
- 5
obsoleteTo court.
- 6
obsoleteTo follow.
noun
- 1
informalSynonym of Mary Sue (“type of character in fiction”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sue in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to file a legal action:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poursuivre en justice, intenter un procès à |
| German | verklagen, klagen |
| Portuguese | processar, demandar |
| Spanish | demandar, querellarse, pleitear |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sue come from?
From Middle English seuen, sewen, siwen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suer, siwer et al. and Old French sivre (“to follow after”) (modern French suivre), from Vulgar Latin *sequere (“to follow”), from Latin sequi. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Doublet of segue. Related to suit.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).