surmise
/sɜːˈmaɪz/
"surmise" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surmise” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #43,399. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #43,399
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
Corpus desk
Index EN-surmise · surmise · English
surmise · rank #43,399 · 10 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-MID #43,399
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH strove
Nearest frequency peer: strove (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “surmise”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- strangeness
strangeness
56,606 corpus weight
- stratum
stratum
56,605 corpus weight
- strenuously
strenuously
56,604 corpus weight
- strove
strove
56,603 corpus weight
- surmise
surmise
56,602 corpus weight
- swindle
swindle
56,600 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “surmise” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | surmise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɜːˈmaɪz/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #43,399 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surmise” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around surmise (IPA /sɜːˈmaɪz/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #43,399 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for surmise, with forms such as "srumise", "ssurmise", and "sumrise". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "survive", "surprise", "sunrise", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”). The correct English form is surmise, spelled S-U-R-M-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
- 2Reflection; thought; posit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how surmise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
surmises of jealousy or of envy
This opinion, however, is merely a surmise, which may or may not be the case.
Etymology
From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- srumise
- ssurmise
- sumrise
- surimse
- surmies
- surmisse
- surmmise
- surmsie
- surrmise
- usrmise
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of surmise - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "surmise", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "surmise". Here's where to go from here.
- "surmise" maps to 3 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "survive". View pair
- 10 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #43,399 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.