monsieur

\mə.sjø\

/\mə.sjø\/ noun

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

The verdict

“monsieur” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #805. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#805
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Appellation permettant de s’adresser de façon polie à un homme (un client, un professeur, un passant, etc.).

Corpus desk

Index FR-monsieur · monsieur · French

monsieur · rank #805 · 11 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #805
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH idées

Nearest frequency peer: idées (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « monsieur »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « monsieur » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

monsieur vs Monster
63% similar
monsieur vs monteur
75% similar
monsieur vs Monnier
63% similar

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

Key facts for monsieur
PropertyValue
Headwordmonsieur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mə.sjø\
Letters8
Frequency rank#805
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « monsieur »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).monsieurse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « idées » (#804), « nombreuses » (#806), « domaine » (#803). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « monsieur » est au #805. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around monsieur (IPA \mə.sjø\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #805 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for monsieur, with forms such as "mmonsieur", "mnosieur", and "moniseur". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Monster", "monteur", "Monnier", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is monsieur, spelled M-O-N-S-I-E-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Appellation permettant de s’adresser de façon polie à un homme (un client, un professeur, un passant, etc.).
  2. 2
    Homme dont on ne connaît pas le nom (par opposition à dame, madame).
  3. 3
    Terme courtois pour un homme (par opposition à dame et demoiselle).
  4. 4
    Le chef, le maître de maison, dans le langage des domestiques.
  5. 5
    Homme qui a les dehors d’un bourgeois, dont le langage et les manières annoncent quelque éducation.
  6. 6
    Personnage d’un rang important (→ voir grand monsieur).
  7. 7
    Nom donné, par antiphrase, au cochon.
  8. 8
    Dans le Bas-Maine, nom donné autrefois au vin.
  9. 9
    Un homme quelconque.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Bonjour, monsieur !
  2. On s’est habitué, de notre temps, à mettre monseigneur devant un nom propre, à dire monseigneur Dupanloup, monseigneur Affre. C’est là une faute de français ; le mot « monseigneur » ne doit s’employer qu’au vocatif ou devant un nom de dignité. En s’adressant à M. Dupanloup, à M. Affre, on devrait dire : monseigneur. En parlant d’eux, on devrait dire : mon…

Synonyms

m’sieurmossieurmôssieur

This word in other languages

sir(English)señor(Español)Herr(Deutsch)senhor(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • mmonsieur
  • mnosieur
  • moniseur
  • monnsieur
  • monseiur
  • monsieru
  • monsieurr
  • monsiuer
  • monssieur
  • mosnieur
  • omnsieur

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of monsieur - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

mmonsieur1mnosieur2moniseur2monnsieur1monseiur2monsieru2monsieurr1monsiuer2
Edit distance from "monsieur"

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "monsieur"?
"monsieur" is spelled M-O-N-S-I-E-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \mə.sjø\.
What does "monsieur" mean?
As a noun, "monsieur" means: Appellation permettant de s’adresser de façon polie à un homme (un client, un professeur, un passant, etc.).
What words are commonly confused with "monsieur"?
"monsieur" is commonly confused with "Monster", "monteur", "Monnier". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "monsieur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "monsieur" is \mə.sjø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "monsieur" come from?
"monsieur" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

victoire#798pratique#796répondre#814attendre#784

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

commission11 variantsutiliser11 variantscontinue11 variantsliberté11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list