sapovssupWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,403
“sapo” frequency rank
#25,150
“sup” frequency rank
34553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sapo sup
Definition refere-se à maioria dos anfíbios da ordem dos anuros que possuem pele rugosa e seca abutre

Where the eye mixes sapo and sup

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

4 ch
sapo
3 ch
sup

Visual trap between sapo and sup

A purely visual mix-up. sapo (/ˈsa.pu/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sapo is recorded at frequency rank #9,403, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.pu/. 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 34553, this pair ranks #32,675 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sapo vs sup

Shared letters: ps. Private to "sapo": ao. Private to "sup": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sapoaspo · saop · sappo · spao · ssapo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sapo" and "sup" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsa.pu/ versus /sʊp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sapo" vs "sup" - which ranks higher?
"sapo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,403 in our Portuguese list, against #25,150 for "sup". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sapo" 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 #32,675 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sapo" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs sup". 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 #32,675 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