soberness

noun

"soberness" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“soberness” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The state or quality of being sober.

Corpus desk

Index EN-soberness · soberness · English

soberness · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for soberness
PropertyValue
Headwordsoberness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “soberness” in English

sobernessranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

soberness is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The state or quality of being sober.".

No misspelling variants are generated for soberness in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sobernes, sobrenesse; equivalent to sober + -ness. The correct English form is soberness, spelled S-O-B-E-R-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state or quality of being sober.

Etymology

From Middle English sobernes, sobrenesse; equivalent to sober + -ness.

Synonyms

sobrietydrunkenness#Antonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "soberness"?
"soberness" is spelled S-O-B-E-R-N-E-S-S.
What does "soberness" mean?
As a noun, "soberness" means: The state or quality of being sober.
What is the origin of the word "soberness"?
From Middle English sobernes, sobrenesse; equivalent to sober + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list