source vs Sure, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12,343
“source” frequency rank: #33,629
“Sure” frequency rank: 45972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	source	Sure
Definition	fonte, origem	surata

Where the eye mixes source and Sure

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

6 ch

source

4 ch

Sure

Visual trap between source and Sure

A purely visual mix-up. source (/sɔɹs/) and Sure (/ˈzuːrə/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

source is recorded at frequency rank #12,343, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɔɹs/. Sure is at rank #33,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈzuːrə/.

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 45972, this pair ranks #19,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of source vs Sure

Shared letters: ersu. Private to "source": co. Private to "Sure": -.

"source" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "Sure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

source ← osurce · soruce · soucre · sourcce · sourec · sourrce · ssource · suorce
Sure ← srue · ssure · suer · surre · usre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "source" for "Sure" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/sɔɹs/ versus /ˈzuːrə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "source" or "Sure"?

"source" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,343 in our Portuguese list, against #33,629 for "Sure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "source" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Sure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #19,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"source" and "Sure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sire vs Sure". 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 #19,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.