Surprise, Suprise or Surprize —Which Is Correct?

• 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.

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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:

Sylvia surprised us when she came home for the holidays.

He came home to find an unpleasant suprise—his dog had chewed up all of his shoes.

I’m throwing my sister a big surprise party for her birthday.

It’s not a suprise if you knew it was going to happen.

Surprize was once a common alternative spelling of surprise, but it’s now considered archaic, so you should avoid it.

It was a surprisingly comfortable flight.

The surprize came too late.

Examples

These screaming children were so excited when Iron Man made a surprise appearance at a birthday party.

The Daily Mirror

So, there was plenty of surprise when an email from the iPhone maker dropped into inboxes earlier in the week.

Irish Examiner

What can you do if you’re on the receiving end of surprise billing?

CBS News

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.