sur

[ˈsuɾ]

/[ˈsuɾ]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“sur” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #517) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#517
frequency rank, Spanish
4,169
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Punto cardinal del horizonte, exactamente donde se encuentra el Sol a mediodía (en el hemisferio norte), marcado a 180° con respecto al Norte en una brújula. Convencionalmente se ubica en la parte ...

Corpus desk

Index ES-sur · sur · Spanish

sur · rank #517 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #517
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,169
  • PHOTO-FINISH serie

Nearest frequency peer: serie (-1 rank slots)

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.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “sur”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “sur” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

sur vs sy
33% similar
sur vs sus
67% similar
sur vs SUV
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for sur
PropertyValue
Headwordsur
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈsuɾ]
Letters3
Frequency rank#517
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “sur”

De izquierda a derecha: las pocas palabras que cargan el habla diaria, luego la cola larga casi invisible.surcae aquí:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “serie” (#516), “trabajar” (#518), “peor” (#515). Entre 4,169 lemas con “S”, “sur” va en #517. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for sur is neighbouring look-alikes ("sy", "sus", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈsuɾ]. Frequency #517 among 4,169 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

sur doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable Spanish rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sy", "sus", "SUV", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is sur, spelled S-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Punto cardinal del horizonte, exactamente donde se encuentra el Sol a mediodía (en el hemisferio norte), marcado a 180° con respecto al Norte en una brújula. Convencionalmente se ubica en la parte inferior de los mapas,.
  2. 2
    El polo negativo de un imán.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how sur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A 850 m sobre el nivel del mar. el yacimiento se compone de varios covachos, tres superiores orientados al Este, un cuarto más grande orientado al Sur y un quinto también orientado al Este.

Synonyms

austromediodíameridiónostrosud

Antonyms

norteseptentrión

This word in other languages

south(English)sud(Français)Süden(Deutsch)

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sur"?
"sur" is spelled S-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈsuɾ].
What does "sur" mean?
As a noun, "sur" means: Punto cardinal del horizonte, exactamente donde se encuentra el Sol a mediodía (en el hemisferio norte), marcado a 180° con respecto al Norte en una brújula. Convencionalmente se ubica en la parte ...
What words are commonly confused with "sur"?
"sur" is commonly confused with "sy", "sus", "SUV". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sur" is [ˈsuɾ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sur" come from?
"sur" is a Spanish word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sur", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

iba#500vos#493rey#492voz#546

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list