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sovereign

sov·e·reign/ˈsɑv(ə)ɹɪn/adjective, noun, verb

sovereign is spelled S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N, 3 syllables: sov·e·reign. The wrong spelling people search most is soverign: about 820 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Sovereign is an adjective meaning “Exercising power of rule”.

How many letters and syllables are in sovereign?

Letters9: S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N
Syllables3: sov·e·reign
In writing8.9 times per million words; the 7,672nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, soverign, about 820 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell sovereign?

Sovereign is spelled S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for sovereign in either form.

sovereignthe right spelling5,990 searches a month
soverigna missing e820 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is sovereign?

Sovereign appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sovereign?

  • UK /ˈsɒv.ɹɪn/
  • US /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹɪn/
  • US /ˈsɑvɚn/

Sovereign has 3 syllables, split sov·e·reign in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sovereign.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of sovereign

  • more sovereign comparative
  • most sovereign superlative
  • sovring
  • sovrin
  • sovereigns plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sovereigning participle, present
  • sovereigned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sovereign mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Exercising power of rule.

    sovereign nation

  2. 2

    Having supreme, ultimate power; (often specifically, of a polity) having fully independent power in international relations.

    Near-synonym: supreme

  3. 3

    Exceptional in quality.

    Her voice was her sovereign talent.

  4. 4

    archaicExtremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).

  5. 5

    Princely; royal.

  6. 6

    Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.

noun

  1. 1

    A monarch: a supreme ruler of a country in a monarchical system.

  2. 2

    One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.

  3. 3

    Ellipsis of sovereign citizen.

  4. 4

    A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.

  5. 5

    A former Australian gold coin, minted from 1855–1931, of one pound value.

  6. 6

    A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33+¹⁄₃ standard bottles.

  7. 7

    Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, eg., ursula, viceroy.

  8. 8

    UKslangA large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.

    No, someone who wears loads of sovereigns as well loads of gold and has uh a curly perm and peroxide blonde hair, orange, orange sunbed skin and a fringe like this blow-dried to death, that’s a ‘scally’.

verb

  1. 1

    To rule over as a sovereign.

noun

as Sovereign
  1. 1

    The title of a monarch.

  2. 2

    God, the supreme being who has power over all creation.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sovereign in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsouverain (exercising power of rule)
Germansouverän (exercising power of rule), Souverän, Herrscher (monarch)
Portuguesesoberano (exercising power of rule), suserano, soberana (monarch)
Spanishsoberano (exercising power of rule), coya (monarch)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sovereign come from?

From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. Doublet of souverain. See also suzerain, foreign.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sovereign