sapvssupWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“sap” and “sup” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,768
“sap” frequency rank
#25,150
“sup” frequency rank
57918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sap sup
Definition seiva abutre

Where the eye mixes sap and sup

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

3 ch
sap
3 ch
sup

Look-alike desk: sap vs sup

A purely visual mix-up. sap (/sæp/) and sup (/sʊp/) 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 a single letter - a in “sap” becomes u in “sup”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sap is recorded at frequency rank #32,768, classified as anoun, pronounced /sæp/. sup is at rank #25,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʊp/.

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 57918, this pair ranks #9,053 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sap vs sup

Shared letters: ps. Private to "sap": a. Private to "sup": u.

"sap" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sap" and "sup" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/sæp/ versus /sʊp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sap" or "sup"?
"sup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,150 in our Portuguese list, against #32,768 for "sap". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sap" 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 #9,053 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sap" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sap vs soap". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,053 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list