surety
/ˈʃɔːɹɪti/
"surety" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surety” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #36,360 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,360
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Certainty.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | surety |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃɔːɹɪti/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #36,360 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surety” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for surety is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃɔːɹɪti/. Corpus data places it at rank #36,360 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for surety, with forms such as "sruety", "ssurety", and "suerty". 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, "surly", "surry", "survey", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English surete, attested since the early 1300s in the sense "guarantee, promise, pledge, assurance", from Anglo-Norman seurté/Old French seurté with the same meaning (whence modern French sûreté), from Latin sēcūritās. Equivalent to sure + -ty. … The correct English form is surety, spelled S-U-R-E-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Certainty.
- 2That which makes sure; that which confirms; ground of confidence or security.
- 3A promise to pay a sum of money in the event that another person fails to fulfill an obligation.
- 4One who undertakes to pay money or perform other acts in the event that his principal fails therein.
- 5A substitute; a hostage.
- 6Evidence; confirmation; warrant.
Etymology
From Middle English surete, attested since the early 1300s in the sense "guarantee, promise, pledge, assurance", from Anglo-Norman seurté/Old French seurté with the same meaning (whence modern French sûreté), from Latin sēcūritās. Equivalent to sure + -ty. The senses "security, safety, stability" and "certainty" are attested since the late 1300s. "One who undertakes to pay if another does not" is from the early 1400s. Doublet of security.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sruety,ssurety,suerty,suretty,suretyy,sureyt,surrety,surtey,usrety
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of surety - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "surety"?
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Using “surety”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-R-E-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃɔːɹɪti/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “surly” - see the side-by-side comparison. surety vs surly
- 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.