solivssulWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“soli” and “sul” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,459
“soli” frequency rank
#20,840
“sul” frequency rank
65299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soli sul
Definition Codorniz. Sur.

Where the eye mixes soli and sul

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

4 ch
soli
3 ch
sul

Why the eye confuses soli with sul

A purely visual mix-up. soli (/ˈso.li/) and sul (/ˈsul/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soli is recorded at frequency rank #44,459, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈso.li/. sul is at rank #20,840, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsul/.

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 65299, this pair ranks #43,053 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of soli vs sul

Shared letters: ls. Private to "soli": io. Private to "sul": u.

"soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sul" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soliosli · sloi · soil · solli · ssoli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soli" for "sul" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈso.li/ versus /ˈsul/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soli" or "sul"?
"sul" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,840 in our Spanish list, against #44,459 for "soli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "soli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,053 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soli" and "sul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sila vs soli". 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 #43,053 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