sœur
\sœʁ\
The verdict
“sœur” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,380. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,380
- frequency rank, French
- 394,209
- “S” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Femme ou fille, ayant le même père et la même mère que la personne considérée. Si un seul des parents est commun, c’est une demi-sœur.
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 | sœur |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sœʁ\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,380 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sœur” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around sœur (IPA \sœʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,380 among 394,209 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for sœur, with forms such as "ssœur", "suœr", and "sœru". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "su", "sr", "sur", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is sœur, spelled S-Œ-U-R.
Definition
- 1Femme ou fille, ayant le même père et la même mère que la personne considérée. Si un seul des parents est commun, c’est une demi-sœur.
- 2Membre féminin d’une adelphie.
- 3Membre féminin d’une fraternité religieuse qui a prononcé des vœux.
- 4Réplique issue d’un original, d’importance égale ou moindre, parfois supérieure. Utilisé seulement pour les noms féminins.
- 5Élément (féminin) d’un ensemble.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ssœur
- suœr
- sœru
- sœurr
- œsur
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sœur - 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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sœur"?
What does "sœur" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sœur"?
How do you pronounce "sœur"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sœur”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-Œ-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sœʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “su” - see the side-by-side comparison. sœur vs su
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Same frequency band
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.