severe
\sɪˈvɪəɼ\
The verdict
“severe” is uncommon French (frequency #65,512 among 394,209 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,512
- frequency rank, French
- 394,209
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sévère.
Corpus desk
Index FR-severe · severe · French
severe · rank #65,512 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,512
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 394,209
- PHOTO-FINISH serpillère
Nearest frequency peer: serpillère (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “severe”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Seghers
Seghers
34,492 corpus weight
- sentimental…
sentimentalement
34,491 corpus weight
- serpillère
serpillère
34,490 corpus weight
- severe
severe
34,489 corpus weight
- shutdown
shutdown
34,488 corpus weight
- sica
sica
34,487 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “severe” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | severe |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \sɪˈvɪəɼ\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #65,512 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “severe” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
severe is uncommon French at frequency #65,512 among 394,209 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \sɪˈvɪəɼ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for severe in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 severe, spelled S-E-V-E-R-E.
Definition
- 1Sévère.
- 2Rigoureux.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how severe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
a severe winter - un hiver rigoureux
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "severe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.