sound out
"sound-out" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sound out” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. 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) - To question and listen attentively in order to discover a person's opinion, intent, or preference, especially by using indirect conversational remarks.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sound-out · sound out · English
sound out · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sound out |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sound out” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sound out is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
sound out doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is sound out, spelled S-O-U-N-D- -O-U-T.
Definition
- 1To question and listen attentively in order to discover a person's opinion, intent, or preference, especially by using indirect conversational remarks.
- 2To pronounce a word or phrase by articulating each of its letters or syllables slowly in sequence.
- 3To speak or sing loudly, to call out.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sound out appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You'll have to ask them—sound them out.
Sound out, voices of young men! loudly and musically call me by my nighest name!
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.