sonder

\sɔ̃.de\

/\sɔ̃.de\/ verb

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

The verdict

“sonder” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #24,779. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#24,779
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Reconnaître, par des instruments idoines, la profondeur de la mer, d’une rivière, la nature du fond, etc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sonder · sonder · French

sonder · rank #24,779 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #24,779
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sollicitée

Nearest frequency peer: sollicitée (-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 « sonder »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sonder » 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).

sonder vs Sonne
50% similar
sonder vs songe
67% similar
sonder vs soude
67% similar

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

Key facts for sonder
PropertyValue
Headwordsonder
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\sɔ̃.de\
Letters6
Frequency rank#24,779
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sonder »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sonderse 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 « sollicitée » (#24,778), « sosie » (#24,780), « solennel » (#24,777). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sonder » est au #24,779. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around sonder (IPA \sɔ̃.de\), averb. Corpus frequency is #24,779 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for sonder, with forms such as "osnder", "snoder", and "sodner". 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, "Sonne", "songe", "soude", 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 its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is sonder, spelled S-O-N-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Reconnaître, par des instruments idoines, la profondeur de la mer, d’une rivière, la nature du fond, etc.
  2. 2
    Enfoncer, introduire dans certaines choses un instrument fait exprès, pour en connaître la nature ou la qualité.
  3. 3
    Tâcher de connaître s’il n’y a pas de danger dans une affaire et de savoir comment il faudra s’y prendre pour réussir.
  4. 4
    Explorer une plaie ou une cavité du corps à l’aide d’une sonde.
  5. 5
    Chercher à connaître.
  6. 6
    Chercher à connaître les pensées, les volontés de quelqu’un.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ayant franchi quelques glaces serrées, nous gagnâmes un chenal d'eau libre le long de terre où nous draguâmes, sondâmes et recueillîmes des températures et échantillons d'eau de mer.
  2. Le soir la vigie signale à quelques encablures de la côte une goélette immobile qui semble donner de la bande. […]. Comme le schooner peut avoir besoin de secours, nous approchons en sondant prudemment.

This word in other languages

sound(English)sondear(Español)ergründen(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osnder
  • snoder
  • sodner
  • sondder
  • sonderr
  • sondre
  • sonedr
  • sonnder
  • ssonder

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sonder - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

osnder2snoder2sodner2sondder1sonderr1sondre2sonedr2sonnder1
Edit distance from "sonder"

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 "sonder"?
"sonder" is spelled S-O-N-D-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \sɔ̃.de\.
What does "sonder" mean?
As a verb, "sonder" means: Reconnaître, par des instruments idoines, la profondeur de la mer, d’une rivière, la nature du fond, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "sonder"?
"sonder" is commonly confused with "Sonne", "songe", "soude". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sonder"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sonder" is \sɔ̃.de\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sonder" come from?
"sonder" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "sonder", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

tapant#24,792travel#24,797revêtu#24,746Yvette#24,819

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

skipper9 variantssuccéda9 variantsréussisse9 variantsrosalie9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list