sebovssupoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sebo is a noun, supo is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sebo” is a noun and “supo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,687
“sebo” frequency rank
#4,201
“supo” frequency rank
46888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sebo supo
Definition Lubricante natural de la piel de los mamíferos, compuesto de grasa y residuos epiteliales, producido por las glándulas sebáceas. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de saber.

Where the eye mixes sebo and supo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sebo
4 ch
supo

Look-alike desk: sebo vs supo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sebo is [ˈseβ̞o] while supo is [ˈsupo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sebo is recorded at frequency rank #42,687, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈseβ̞o]. supo is at rank #4,201, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈsupo].

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 46888, this pair ranks #123,163 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sebo vs supo

Shared letters: os. Private to "sebo": be. Private to "supo": pu.

"sebo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "supo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seboesbo · sbeo · sebbo · seob · sevo · ssebo
  • supospuo · ssupo · suop · suppo · uspo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sebo" for "supo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sebo" is a noun and "supo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "sebo" or "supo" show up more?
"supo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,201 in our Spanish list, against #42,687 for "sebo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "sebo" and "supo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sebo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "supo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,163 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sebo" and "supo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sebo vs sei". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #123,163 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list