- Surprise is the correct way to spell the word.
- Surprize was once an alternative spelling, but it’s very rarely used today.
- Suprise is not an acceptable way to spell surprise.
Once upon a time, it was possible to choose between two spellings of surprise, but nowadays there’s only one.
How to spell surprise
There is only one generally accepted spelling of surprise: two r‘s and two s‘s in total. Spelling the word without the first r—suprise—is an easy mistake to make. We often don’t pronounce the first r, suh-prize, which might lead you to think that there’s no r there at all. But there is:
Surprize was once a common alternative spelling of surprise, but it’s now considered archaic, so you should avoid it.
Examples of the word surprise
In some cases, learning a couple of very helpful spelling rules can help you avoid making a spelling mistake, but with surprise, you need to remember that there are two r‘s and two s‘s. This one isn’t a matter of choice like apologise-apologize or realise-realize.
