sus

\sys\

/\sys\/ adv

The verdict

“sus” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,488) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#12,488
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dessus.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sus · sus · French

sus · rank #12,488 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,488
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH survivant

Nearest frequency peer: survivant (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « sus »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « sus » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

sus vs sy
33% similar
sus vs SV
0% similar
sus vs SVP
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for sus
PropertyValue
Headwordsus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\sys\
Letters3
Frequency rank#12,488
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « sus »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.susse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « survivant » (#12,487), « séjours » (#12,489), « superman » (#12,486). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sus » est au #12,488. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for sus is neighbouring look-alikes ("sy", "SV", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced \sys\. Frequency #12,488 among 6,032 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sus, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sy", "SV", "SVP", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is sus, spelled S-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dessus.
  2. 2
    Formule familière destinée à exciter, à encourager ou à exhorter ; pourchassons, attaquons-nous à une chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […] peu de temps avant la première Croisade, Alexandre II (1061-1073) déclara que le devoir des chrétiens était de courir sus aux Sarrazins, persécuteurs des fidèles, mais d’épargner les Juifs, gens paisibles et inoffensifs.
  2. T'es attaches sus tes bottes, ça t'empêche de caler dans la neige.

This word in other languages

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sus"?
"sus" is spelled S-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \sys\.
What does "sus" mean?
As an adverb, "sus" means: Dessus.
What words are commonly confused with "sus"?
"sus" is commonly confused with "sy", "SV", "SVP". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sus" is \sys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sus" come from?
"sus" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list