source

/sɔːs/

//sɔːs// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"source" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“source” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #743. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#743
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.

Corpus desk

Index EN-source · source · English

source · rank #743 · 8 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #743
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH sound

Nearest frequency peer: sound (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “source”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “source” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

source vs sure
67% similar
source vs surge
67% similar
source vs sources
86% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for source
PropertyValue
Headwordsource
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/sɔːs/
Letters6
Frequency rank#743
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “source” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).sourcelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “sound” (#742), “usually” (#744), “September” (#741). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around source (IPA /sɔːs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #743 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for source, with forms such as "osurce", "soruce", and "soucre". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "sure", "surge", "sources", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sours, from Old French sorse (“rise, beginning, spring, source”), from sors, past participle of sordre, sourdre, from Latin surgō (“to rise”), which is composed of sub- (“up from below”) + regō (“lead, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-… The correct English form is source, spelled S-O-U-R-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.
  2. 2
    Spring; fountainhead; wellhead; any collection of water on or under the surface of the ground in which a stream originates.
  3. 3
    A reporter's informant.
  4. 4
    Source code.
  5. 5
    The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
  6. 6
    A node in a directed graph whose edges all go out from it; one with no entering edges.
  7. 7
    The domain of a function; the object which a morphism points from.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how source appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling.
  2. More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

Etymology

From Middle English sours, from Old French sorse (“rise, beginning, spring, source”), from sors, past participle of sordre, sourdre, from Latin surgō (“to rise”), which is composed of sub- (“up from below”) + regō (“lead, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-. Doublet of surge.

Synonyms

wellspringparentage

Antonyms

sink

This word in other languages

fuente(Español)source(Français)Quelle(Deutsch)origem(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osurce
  • soruce
  • soucre
  • sourcce
  • sourec
  • sourrce
  • ssource
  • suorce

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of source - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

osurce2soruce2soucre2sourcce1sourec2sourrce1ssource1suorce2
Edit distance from "source"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "source"?
"source" is spelled S-O-U-R-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /sɔːs/.
What does "source" mean?
As a noun, "source" means: The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.
What words are commonly confused with "source"?
"source" is commonly confused with "sure", "surge", "sources". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "source"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "source" is /sɔːs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "source"?
From Middle English sours, from Old French sorse (“rise, beginning, spring, source”), from sors, past participle of sordre, sourdre, from Latin surgō (“to rise”), which is composed of sub- (“up from below”) + regō (“lead, rule”), ultimately from P... 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "source", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

follow#747ground#735giving#734became#728

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

usually8 variantsstand8 variantsamount8 variantsworth8 variants

What to do next

You've looked up "source". Here's where to go from here.

  • "source" maps to 10 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "sure". View pair
  • 8 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #743 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list