surprisal
/sə(ɹ)ˈpɹaɪzəl/noun
surprisal is spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-A-L: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 95 million words in written English, the 313,259th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, surprisal means “An information measure as equal in bits (binary digits) to the base-2 log of 1 over the probability, with the result that the number of choices…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of surprisal is surprisals.
How many letters and syllables are in surprisal?
| Letters | 9: S-U-R-P-R-I-S-A-L |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 95 million words; the 313,259th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is surprisal?
Surprisal appears about once in every 95 million words in written English, the 313,259th 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 surprisal?
- /sə(ɹ)ˈpɹaɪzəl/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of surprisal
- surprisals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does surprisal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
obsoleteA surprise attack or ambush; a sudden or unexpected assault.
- 2
obsoleteA sudden coming-upon someone or something unexpectedly or unawares.
- 3
obsoleteA surprising event or occurrence.
- 4
obsoleteThe feeling caused by being surprised; surprise, shock, amazement.
- 5
An information measure as equal in bits (binary digits) to the base-2 log of 1 over the probability, with the result that the number of choices equals 2ⁿ where n is the number of bits.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does surprisal come from?
From surprise + -al. (information measure): Defined by Myron Tribus in the 1961 book Thermostatics and Thermodynamics.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).