surevssutureConfusable pair

Quick tell: sure is a adjective, suture is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sure” is an adjective and “suture” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,164
“sure” frequency rank
#21,179
“suture” frequency rank
29343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sure suture
Definition Féminin singulier de sur : qui a un goût acide et aigrelet. Jointure de deux parties du crâne qui entrent l’une dans l’autre par des dentelures et qui paraissent comme cousues ensemble.

Where the eye mixes sure and suture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sure
6 ch
suture

Why the eye confuses sure with suture

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sure is \syʁ\ while suture is \sy.tyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sure is recorded at frequency rank #8,164, classified as anadj, pronounced \syʁ\. suture is at rank #21,179, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sy.tyʁ\.

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 29343, this pair ranks #317,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sure vs suture

Shared letters: ersu. Private to "sure": -. Private to "suture": t.

"sure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "suture" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suresrue · ssure · surre · usre
  • suturessuture · stuure · sutrue · sutture · sutuer · suturre · suutre · usture

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sure" and "suture" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sure" is an adjective and "suture" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sure" vs "suture" - which ranks higher?
"sure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,164 in our French list, against #21,179 for "suture". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sure" and "suture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sutra vs suture". 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 #317,268 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