só vs sup, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#50
“só” frequency rank: #25,150
“sup” frequency rank: 25200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	só	sup
Definition	solitário, sem companhia, sem círculo social	abutre

Where the eye mixes só and sup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

só

3 ch

sup

Visual trap between só and sup

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: só is /ˈsɔ/ while sup is /sʊp/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

só is recorded at frequency rank #50, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɔ/. 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 25200, this pair ranks #44,169 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of só vs sup

Shared letters: s. Private to "só": ó. Private to "sup": pu.

"só" · 2 letters · shape CV · "sup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "só" and "sup" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "só" is an adjective and "sup" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "só" or "sup"?

"só" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #50 in our Portuguese list, against #25,150 for "sup". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "só" 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 #44,169 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"só" and "sup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs sup". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #44,169 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.