surmount
/səˈmaʊnt/
"surmount" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surmount” is an uncommon English word, ranked #74,549 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #74,549
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To get or be over without touching or resting on; to overcome.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | surmount |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /səˈmaʊnt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #74,549 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surmount” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for surmount is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /səˈmaʊnt/. Corpus data places it at rank #74,549 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
surmount doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English surmounten, from Old French surmonter (“to rise above, surmount”), from sur- (“above”) + monter (“to mount”), equivalent to sur- + mount. The correct English form is surmount, spelled S-U-R-M-O-U-N-T.
Definition
- 1To get or be over without touching or resting on; to overcome.
- 2To cap; to sit on top of.
Etymology
From Middle English surmounten, from Old French surmonter (“to rise above, surmount”), from sur- (“above”) + monter (“to mount”), equivalent to sur- + mount.
This word in other languages
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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Using “surmount”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-R-M-O-U-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /səˈmaʊnt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.