Sot vs. Sought

Sot and sought are commonly confused words that are pronounced in the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the different meanings of the homophonic words sot and sought, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.

A sot is a drunkard. A sot is someone who drinks habitually and is often inebriated. The word sot is derived from the Old English word, sott, which means a foolish person.

Sought is the past tense of seek, which means to look for something, to try to find something, to search for something, or to try to achieve something. Related words are seeks, seeking. The word sought is derived from the Old English word, sohte.

Examples

Clearly, he was a sot, irreparably ravished by the bottle. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Was he our politically savvy first prime minister, a drunken sot or architect of the genocide of Indigenous peoples? (The Chronicle Herald)

“They remain highly sought after because they always were and continue to be high quality and unlike anything else.” (Wine Enthusiast Magazine)

Prosecutors on Tuesday sought stiff sentences from five years to life in jail for 14 suspected accomplices of the Islamist gunmen who murdered cartoonists and killed hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015. (Deccan Herald)