surprise
/səˈpɹaɪz/
"surprise" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surprise” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,841. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,841
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Something unexpected.
Corpus desk
Index EN-surprise · surprise · English
surprise · rank #1,841 · 12 variants · 4 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,841
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH suggest
Nearest frequency peer: suggest (-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 “surprise”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- roll
roll
98,163 corpus weight
- slightly
slightly
98,162 corpus weight
- suggest
suggest
98,161 corpus weight
- surprise
surprise
98,160 corpus weight
- technical
technical
98,159 corpus weight
- thoughts
thoughts
98,158 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “surprise” 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 | surprise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /səˈpɹaɪz/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #1,841 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surprise” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around surprise (IPA /səˈpɹaɪz/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,841 among 54,294 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for surprise, with forms such as "sruprise", "ssurprise", and "suprrise". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "surprised", "sunrise", "surmise", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English surprise, borrowed from Middle French surprise (“an overtake”), nominal use of the past participle of Old French sorprendre (“to overtake”), from sor- (“over”) + prendre (“to take”), from Latin super- + Latin prendere, contracted from pr… The correct English form is surprise, spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Something unexpected.
- 2Something unexpected.
- 3The feeling that something unexpected has happened.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how surprise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It was a surprise to find out I owed twice as much as I thought.
It came as a surprise when he succeed.
Etymology
From Middle English surprise, borrowed from Middle French surprise (“an overtake”), nominal use of the past participle of Old French sorprendre (“to overtake”), from sor- (“over”) + prendre (“to take”), from Latin super- + Latin prendere, contracted from prehendere (“to grasp, seize”). Doublet of suppli.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- sruprise
- ssurprise
- suprrise
- surpirse
- surpprise
- surpries
- surprisse
- surprrise
- surprsie
- surrpise
- surrprise
- usrprise
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of surprise - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "surprise"?
What does "surprise" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "surprise"?
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What is the origin of the word "surprise"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "surprise", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).
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.