somme

\sɔm\

/\sɔm\/ noun

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

The verdict

“somme” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,458) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,458
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Résultat de l’addition de plusieurs nombres.

Corpus desk

Index FR-somme · somme · French

somme · rank #1,458 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,458
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH scientifique

Nearest frequency peer: scientifique (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « somme »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « somme » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

somme vs sorte
60% similar
somme vs soupe
60% similar
somme vs Sonne
40% similar

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

Key facts for somme
PropertyValue
Headwordsomme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɔm\
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,458
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « somme »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).sommese 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 « scientifique » (#1,457), « sujets » (#1,459), « responsabilité » (#1,456). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « somme » est au #1,458. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for somme is neighbouring look-alikes ("sorte", "soupe", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \sɔm\. Frequency #1,458 among 6,032 “S” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for somme, with forms such as "osmme", "smome", and "somem". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sorte", "soupe", "Sonne", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

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 somme, spelled S-O-M-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Résultat de l’addition de plusieurs nombres.
  2. 2
    Quantité d’argent.
  3. 3
    Ensemble, totalité.
  4. 4
    Ensemble de livres qui traitent en abrégé de toutes les parties d’une science, d’une doctrine, etc.
  5. 5
    Meuble représentant un disque de couleur verte dans les armoiries. Il s’agit d’ancien nom utilisé pour le tourteau de sinople. À rapprocher de besant, besant-tourteau, buse, gulpe, guse, heurte, œil de faucon, ogoesse, plate, pomme, tourteau, tourteau-besant et volet.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cinq, la somme de deux et trois.
  2. Si l’on additionne tous ces chiffres, on arrive à une somme importante.

Synonyms

pommevolet

This word in other languages

sum(English)suma(Español)Summe(Deutsch)soma(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osmme
  • smome
  • somem
  • ssomme

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

osmme2smome2somem2ssomme1
Edit distance from "somme"

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 "somme"?
"somme" is spelled S-O-M-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sɔm\.
What does "somme" mean?
As a noun, "somme" means: Résultat de l’addition de plusieurs nombres.
What words are commonly confused with "somme"?
"somme" is commonly confused with "sorte", "soupe", "Sonne". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "somme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "somme" is \sɔm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "somme" come from?
"somme" 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 "somme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

tirer#1,460voire#1,464champ#1,472lance#1,441

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list