surreptitious
/səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs/adjective
surreptitious is spelled S-U-R-R-E-P-T-I-T-I-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is surreptious: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 75 of all searches for the word. Surreptitious is an adjective meaning “Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements)”.
How many letters and syllables are in surreptitious?
| Letters | 13: S-U-R-R-E-P-T-I-T-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 68,248th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, surreptious, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell surreptitious?
Surreptitious is spelled S-U-R-R-E-P-T-I-T-I-O-U-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 57 of the searches for surreptitious 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 surreptitious?
Surreptitious appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th 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 surreptitious?
- UK /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/
- US /səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs/
- US /ˌsʌɹəpˈtɪʃəs/
Surreptitious has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-surreptitious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with surreptitious?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as surreptitious from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃəs/):
- delicious
- ambitious
- fictitious
- nutritious
- superstitious
- auspicious
- pernicious
- judicious
- bootylicious
- lubricious
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of surreptitious
- more surreptitious comparative
- most surreptitious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does surreptitious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Surreptitious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | furtif, subreptice |
| German | heimlich, verdeckt, verstohlen, betrügerisch, erschlichen |
| Portuguese | sub-reptício, furtivo |
| Spanish | subrepticio |
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 surreptitious come from?
Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).