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” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #743 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#743
frequency rank, English
6
letters
8
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.

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

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). source lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for source is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɔːs/. Corpus data places it at rank #743 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

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.

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.

Using “source”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-O-U-R-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /sɔːs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “sure” - see the side-by-side comparison. source vs sure
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list