sumovssupTell them apart

Quick tell: sumo is a noun, sup is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sumo” is a noun and “sup” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,896
“sumo” frequency rank
#10,952
“sup” frequency rank
56848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sumo sup
Definition Sport de lutte japonais, consistant à faire sortir l’adversaire hors d’un cercle marquant la zone de lutte ou à le faire tomber. Super

Where the eye mixes sumo and sup

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

4 ch
sumo
3 ch
sup

Why the eye confuses sumo with sup

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sumo is \sy.mo\ while sup is \syp\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56848, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sumo is recorded at frequency rank #45,896, classified as anoun, pronounced \sy.mo\. sup is at rank #10,952, tagged as anintj, pronounced \syp\.

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 56848, this pair ranks #118,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sumo vs sup

Shared letters: su. Private to "sumo": mo. Private to "sup": p.

"sumo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sumosmuo · ssumo · summo · suom · usmo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sumo" and "sup" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sumo" is a noun and "sup" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sumo" vs "sup" - which ranks higher?
"sup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,952 in our French list, against #45,896 for "sumo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sumo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sumo" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sumo vs suu". 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 #118,528 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