sourpuss
/ˈsaʊə(ɹ)ˌpʊs/
"sourpuss" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sourpuss” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sourpuss · sourpuss · English
sourpuss · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sourpuss |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsaʊə(ɹ)ˌpʊs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sourpuss” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sourpuss is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsaʊə(ɹ)ˌpʊs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sourpuss, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sour (“bad-tempered”) + puss (“slang for mouth”). The correct English form is sourpuss, spelled S-O-U-R-P-U-S-S.
Definition
- 1A person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sourpuss appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They butt heads sometimes because Jenna can be pretty selfish and tone-deaf, and Jeordie can be a little bit of a sourpuss.
Etymology
From sour (“bad-tempered”) + puss (“slang for mouth”).
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.