surface
sur·face/ˈsɜː.fɪs/noun, verb
surface is spelled S-U-R-F-A-C-E, 2 syllables: sur·face. The wrong spelling people search most is surfce: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 556 of all searches for the word. Surface is a noun meaning “The external boundary of an object or body”. The plural of surface is surfaces.
How many letters and syllables are in surface?
| Letters | 7: S-U-R-F-A-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: sur·face |
| In writing | 68 times per million words; the 1,562nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, surfce, about 10 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 surface?
Surface is spelled S-U-R-F-A-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 571 of the searches for surface in either form.
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 surface?
Surface appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd 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 surface?
- /ˈsɜː.fɪs/
- /ˈsɜː.fəs/
- /ˈsɝ.fɪs/
Surface has 2 syllables, split sur·face in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-surface.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of surface
- surfaces plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- surfacing participle, present
- surfaced participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does surface mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The external boundary of an object or body.
- 2
The overside or upside of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
- 3
The outside hull of a tangible object.
- 4
Outward or external appearance.
On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.
- 5
The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a space of more than two dimensions.
- 6
The story or image suggested by a cryptic clue, when read as a whole sentence without considering wordplay.
- 7
A portion of the display to which graphics can be rendered.
The video player algorithm requires a target surface.
verb
- 1
To provide with a surface; to apply a surface to.
The crew surfaced the road with bitumen.
- 2
To rise to the surface.
There was great relief when the missing diver finally surfaced.
- 3
To bring to the surface.
- 4
To come out of hiding.
- 5
To become known or apparent; to appear or be found; to come to light.
They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.
- 6
To make (information, facts, content, etc) known.
They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.
- 7
To work a mine near the surface.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Surface in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | surface , faire surface |
| German | Oberfläche , auftauchen , Fläche , publik werden, ans Licht kommen |
| Portuguese | superfície |
| Spanish | superficie , subir a la superficie |
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 surface come from?
Borrowed from Middle French surface. By surface analysis, sur- + face. Doublet of superficies.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).