sérieux

\se.ʁjø\

/\se.ʁjø\/ adj

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

The verdict

“sérieux” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #889. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#889
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est grave ; qui agit avec réflexion.

Corpus desk

Index FR-serieux · sérieux · French

sérieux · rank #889 · 10 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #889
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH style

Nearest frequency peer: style (-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 « sérieux »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sérieux » 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).

sérieux vs seriez
57% similar
sérieux vs serveur
57% similar
sérieux vs serious
57% similar

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

Key facts for sérieux
PropertyValue
Headwordsérieux
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\se.ʁjø\
Letters7
Frequency rank#889
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sérieux »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).sérieuxse 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 « style » (#888), « terrain » (#890), « second » (#887). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sérieux » est au #889. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around sérieux (IPA \se.ʁjø\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #889 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sérieux, with forms such as "serieux", "sréieux", and "ssérieux". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "seriez", "serveur", "serious", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is sérieux, spelled S-É-R-I-E-U-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est grave ; qui agit avec réflexion.
  2. 2
    Qui ne fait pas d’écart de conduite.
  3. 3
    Qui est solide ou important.
  4. 4
    Qui est crédible ou digne de confiance.
  5. 5
    Qui est sincère ou vrai.
  6. 6
    Qui peut avoir des suites fâcheuses ou de graves conséquences.
  7. 7
    Qui est fait sérieusement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’est un homme très sérieux.
  2. Visage sérieux.

Synonyms

graveappliquéconsciencieux

Antonyms

enjouégaimarrantfrivoleinconséquentléger

This word in other languages

serious(English)serio(Español)ernst(Deutsch)sério(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • serieux
  • sréieux
  • ssérieux
  • séireux
  • séreiux
  • sérieuxx
  • sériexu
  • sériuex
  • sérrieux
  • ésrieux

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

serieux1sréieux2ssérieux1séireux2séreiux2sérieuxx1sériexu2sériuex2
Edit distance from "sérieux"

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 "sérieux"?
"sérieux" is spelled S-É-R-I-E-U-X. The IPA pronunciation is \se.ʁjø\.
What does "sérieux" mean?
As an adjective, "sérieux" means: Qui est grave ; qui agit avec réflexion.
What words are commonly confused with "sérieux"?
"sérieux" is commonly confused with "seriez", "serveur", "serious". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sérieux"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sérieux" is \se.ʁjø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sérieux" come from?
"sérieux" 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 "sérieux", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

terrain#890pouvait#884défense#897heureux#877

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

obtenir10 variantscourant10 variantscombien10 variantsénergie10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list