spyvssucWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“spy” and “suc” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,565
“spy” frequency rank
#44,755
“suc” frequency rank
82320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spy suc
Definition Espion. Liquide organique animal.

Where the eye mixes spy and suc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. spy (CCV) and suc (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
spy
3 ch
suc

Look-alike desk: spy vs suc

A purely visual mix-up. spy (\spaɪ\) and suc (\syk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spy is recorded at frequency rank #37,565, classified as anoun, pronounced \spaɪ\. suc is at rank #44,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \syk\.

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 82320, this pair ranks #16,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spy vs suc

Shared letters: s. Private to "spy": py. Private to "suc": cu.

"spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "suc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "spy" and "suc" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\spaɪ\ versus \syk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "spy" or "suc"?
"spy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,565 in our French list, against #44,755 for "suc". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "spy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spy" and "suc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suc vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,973 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list