somber
/ˈsɑmbɚ/adjective, verb
somber is spelled S-O-M-B-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “somber vs sombre” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, somber means “US standard spelling of sombre” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in somber?
| Letters | 6: S-O-M-B-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 27,150th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is somber?
Somber appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce somber?
- US /ˈsɑmbɚ/
- UK /ˈsɒmbə/
Somber has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-somber.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with somber
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: sombre.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with somber?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as somber from its last stressed vowel (/ɑmbəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sombre.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of somber
- somberer comparative
- somberest superlative
- sombers present, singular, he/she/it
- sombering participle, present
- sombered participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does somber mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
USUS standard spelling of sombre.
verb
- 1
USUS standard spelling of sombre.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).