sombre

/\sɔ̃bʁ\/ adj

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,040

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

11

similar word pairs

sombre is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui est peu éclairé ; qui reçoit peu de lumière ; qui est obscur. Pronounced \sɔ̃bʁ\. It ranks #3,040 in French word frequency. Often confused with some and somme.

Key facts for sombre
PropertyValue
Headwordsombre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\sɔ̃bʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#3,040
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs11
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of sombre in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for sombre is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɔ̃bʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,040 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for sombre, with forms such as "osmbre", "smobre", and "sobmre". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "some", "somme", "sonore", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is sombre, spelled S-O-M-B-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est peu éclairé ; qui reçoit peu de lumière ; qui est obscur.
  2. 2
    Qui est moins éclatant, qui est plus foncé que les autres, en parlant d’une teinte, d’une couleur.
  3. 3
    Qui est mélancolique, morne, taciturne ou chagrin.
  4. 4
    Qui est inquiétant ou menaçant.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: osmbre,smobre,sobmre,sombbre,somber,sombrre,sommbre,somrbe,ssombre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for sombre

Misspelling Variants of "sombre"

osmbre6smobre6sobmre6sombbre7somber6sombrre7sommbre7somrbe6
Misspelling Variants of "sombre"

Frequency rank: #3,040 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sombre"?
"sombre" is spelled S-O-M-B-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sɔ̃bʁ\.
What does "sombre" mean?
As an adj, "sombre" means: Qui est peu éclairé ; qui reçoit peu de lumière ; qui est obscur.
What words are commonly confused with "sombre"?
"sombre" is commonly confused with "some", "somme", "sonore". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sombre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sombre" is \sɔ̃bʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sombre" come from?
"sombre" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.