sauer

\ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\

/\ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\/ adj

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

The verdict

“sauer” is uncommon French (frequency #74,370 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,370
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Acide, aigre, sur.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sauer · sauer · French

sauer · rank #74,370 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,370
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sauvegardée

Nearest frequency peer: sauvegardée (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « sauer »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sauer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sauer
PropertyValue
Headwordsauer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#74,370
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « sauer » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sauertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « sauvegardée » (#74,371), « Scania » (#74,372), « saluées » (#74,367). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sauer » est au #74,370. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sauer is uncommon French at frequency #74,370 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sauer, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is sauer, spelled S-A-U-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Acide, aigre, sur.
  2. 2
    Tourné (en parlant du lait, du vin, etc.).
  3. 3
    Amer.
  4. 4
    Contrarié, fâché, vénère.
  5. 5
    Acide.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Detlef ist sauer auf seinen Sohn, weil er etwas im Kaufhaus klauen wollte und dabei erwischt worden ist.

Antonyms

süßlustigbasisch

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 "sauer"?
"sauer" is spelled S-A-U-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\.
What does "sauer" mean?
As an adjective, "sauer" means: Acide, aigre, sur.
How do you pronounce "sauer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sauer" is \ˈzaʊ̯ɐ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sauer" come from?
"sauer" 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 "sauer", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Selby#74,377senta#74,379soûlé#74,398Rania#74,320

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list