sapeur

\sa.pœʁ\

/\sa.pœʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“sapeur” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #42,034. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#42,034
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
15
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Celui qui est employé à la sape.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sapeur · sapeur · French

sapeur · rank #42,034 · 8 variants · 15 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #42,034
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 15 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH Santerre

Nearest frequency peer: Santerre (-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 « sapeur »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sapeur » 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).

sapeur vs super
67% similar
sapeur vs soeur
67% similar
sapeur vs sueur
67% similar

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

Key facts for sapeur
PropertyValue
Headwordsapeur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sa.pœʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#42,034
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs15
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sapeur »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sapeurse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Santerre » (#42,033), « sarde » (#42,035), « sanctionnées » (#42,032). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sapeur » est au #42,034. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around sapeur (IPA \sa.pœʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #42,034 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for sapeur, with forms such as "aspeur", "saepur", and "saperu". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "super", "soeur", "sueur", 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 sapeur, spelled S-A-P-E-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Celui qui est employé à la sape.
  2. 2
    Soldat de l’arme du génie chargé, d’une part de l’exécution des tranchées et surtout des sapes, c’est-à-dire des ouvrages souterrains permettant de renverser ou de dynamiter un édifice et d'autre part, de faciliter le passage des armées à travers les terrains difficiles. NB : La Légion étrangère compte aussi ses propres sapeurs (ou pionniers) qui défilent traditionnellement en tête lors des parades militaires.
  3. 3
    Désignation du grade d’un membre d’un régiment de génie détenant le grade de soldat.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. D’un autre côté, les assiégeants cherchaient à mettre le feu à ces hourds de bois qui rendaient le travail des sapeurs impossible […].
  2. Une petite escouade de sapeurs était entrée avec le détachement. Hervé leur commanda d'ouvrir à coup de pioche des meurtrières dans le mur qui séparait le jardin de la campagne […].

This word in other languages

sapper(English)zapador(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aspeur
  • saepur
  • saperu
  • sapeurr
  • sappeur
  • sapuer
  • spaeur
  • ssapeur

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sapeur - 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.

aspeur2saepur2saperu2sapeurr1sappeur1sapuer2spaeur2ssapeur1
Edit distance from "sapeur"

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 "sapeur"?
"sapeur" is spelled S-A-P-E-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \sa.pœʁ\.
What does "sapeur" mean?
As a noun, "sapeur" means: Celui qui est employé à la sape.
What words are commonly confused with "sapeur"?
"sapeur" is commonly confused with "super", "soeur", "sueur". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sapeur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sapeur" is \sa.pœʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sapeur" come from?
"sapeur" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "sapeur", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Rémois#42,026sentes#42,044Rostov#42,020Ritter#42,017

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

shock8 variantsslash8 variantsripoux8 variantsreason8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list