souteneur
"souteneur" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“souteneur” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - A man who protects, and commonly compels, a prostitute of any gender and lives off the earnings; a pimp. Originally a Parisian term, but since adopted into other languages such as English.
Corpus desk
Index EN-souteneur · souteneur · English
souteneur · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | souteneur |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “souteneur” in English
Rare enough to double-check
souteneur is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A man who protects, and commonly compels, a prostitute of any gender and lives off the earnings; a pimp. Originally a Parisian term, but since adopted into other languages such as English.".
souteneur has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French souteneur (literally “one who supports”), from the verb soutenir. The correct English form is souteneur, spelled S-O-U-T-E-N-E-U-R.
Definition
- 1A man who protects, and commonly compels, a prostitute of any gender and lives off the earnings; a pimp. Originally a Parisian term, but since adopted into other languages such as English.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how souteneur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The souteneur ... though he lives in comparative comfort from what his mistress gives him, he rarely makes a big haul. His mistress gone, the pot ceases to boil; in fact, he calls her his marmite.
1894 Richard Krafft-Ebing & Charles Gilbert Chaddock. Psychopathia Sexualis. p. 416 Pub. F.A.Davis These "souteneurs" attach their "jesus" to themselves. The passive pederasts are "petits jusus," "jesus," or "aunts." The "petits jesus" are lost, depraved children, whom accident places in the hands of active pederasts, who seduce them, and reveal to them t…
Etymology
From French souteneur (literally “one who supports”), from the verb soutenir.
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.