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surety

/ˈʃʊɹəti/noun

surety is spelled S-U-R-E-T-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, surety means “Certainty” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of surety is sureties.

How many letters and syllables are in surety?

Letters6: S-U-R-E-T-Y
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 36,176th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is surety?

Surety appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th 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 surety?

  • /ˈʃɔːɹɪti/
  • /ˈʃʊəɹɪti/
  • US /ˈʃʊɹəti/

Surety has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-surety.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of surety

  • sureties plural

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

What does surety mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Certainty.

  2. 2

    That which makes sure; that which confirms; ground of confidence or security.

  3. 3

    A promise to pay a sum of money in the event that another person fails to fulfill an obligation.

  4. 4

    One who undertakes to pay money or perform other acts in the event that his principal fails therein.

  5. 5

    A substitute; a hostage.

  6. 6

    Evidence; confirmation; warrant.

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

How do you abbreviate surety?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of surety: Sur..

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

Surety in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcautionnement (law: promise to pay on behalf of another), caution (law: one who undertakes such promise)
GermanBürgschaft (law: promise to pay on behalf of another), Bürge (law: one who undertakes such promise)
Portuguesecaução (law: promise to pay on behalf of another), fiador (law: one who undertakes such promise)
Spanishfianza (law: promise to pay on behalf of another), fiador (law: one who undertakes such promise)

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 surety come from?

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.

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

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