sonar

\sɔ.naʁ\

/\sɔ.naʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“sonar” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #36,596. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#36,596
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Appareil utilisant les propriétés particulières de la propagation du son dans l’eau pour détecter et situer les objets sous l’eau par écholocation.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sonar · sonar · French

sonar · rank #36,596 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #36,596
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sortirais

Nearest frequency peer: sortirais (+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 « sonar »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sonar » 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).

sonar vs sont
60% similar
sonar vs Star
40% similar
sonar vs sons
60% similar

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

Key facts for sonar
PropertyValue
Headwordsonar
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɔ.naʁ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#36,596
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sonar »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.sonarse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « sortirais » (#36,597), « sourciller » (#36,598), « singulières » (#36,593). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sonar » est au #36,596. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around sonar (IPA \sɔ.naʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #36,596 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Appareil utilisant les propriétés particulières de la propagation du son dans l’eau pour détecter et situer les objets sous l’eau par écholocation.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for sonar, with forms such as "osnar", "snoar", and "soanr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sont", "Star", "sons", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 sonar, spelled S-O-N-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Appareil utilisant les propriétés particulières de la propagation du son dans l’eau pour détecter et situer les objets sous l’eau par écholocation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Un sonar émet une impulsion sonore et écoute son écho sur les obstacles qu’elle rencontre.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osnar
  • snoar
  • soanr
  • sonarr
  • sonnar
  • sonra
  • ssonar

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

osnar2snoar2soanr2sonarr1sonnar1sonra2ssonar1
Edit distance from "sonar"

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 "sonar"?
"sonar" is spelled S-O-N-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is \sɔ.naʁ\.
What does "sonar" mean?
As a noun, "sonar" means: Appareil utilisant les propriétés particulières de la propagation du son dans l’eau pour détecter et situer les objets sous l’eau par écholocation.
What words are commonly confused with "sonar"?
"sonar" is commonly confused with "sont", "Star", "sons". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sonar"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sonar" is \sɔ.naʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sonar" come from?
"sonar" 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 "sonar", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list