souple

\supl\

/\supl\/ adj

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

The verdict

“souple” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #10,078. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,078
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est flexible, qui se plie aisément sans se rompre, sans s’abîmer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-souple · souple · French

souple · rank #10,078 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,078
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH souhaitait

Nearest frequency peer: souhaitait (-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 « souple »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « souple » 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).

souple vs soute
67% similar
souple vs source
67% similar
souple vs sourde
67% similar

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

Key facts for souple
PropertyValue
Headwordsouple
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\supl\
Letters6
Frequency rank#10,078
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « souple »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).souplese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « souhaitait » (#10,077), « sperme » (#10,079), « sorbonne » (#10,076). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « souple » est au #10,078. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around souple (IPA \supl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #10,078 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for souple, with forms such as "osuple", "sopule", and "soulpe". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "soute", "source", "sourde", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is souple, spelled S-O-U-P-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est flexible, qui se plie aisément sans se rompre, sans s’abîmer.
  2. 2
    Qui est flexible, qui se plie aisément sans se rompre, sans s’abîmer.
  3. 3
    Qualifie les personnes et les animaux qui ont une grande facilité à se mouvoir, à se plier.
  4. 4
    Où se manifeste de l'aisance.
  5. 5
    Qui est docile, complaisant, soumis, qui a l’humeur accommodante, l’esprit flexible aux volontés d’autrui.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le cachemire n’est pas ondulé comme la laine; il est souple, soyeux et brillant. Son élasticité est plus grande que celle de la laine, de même que sa finesse et sa souplesse; ….
  2. Mais ici, il y avait aussi une crème à bien faire pénétrer dans la peau pour qu’elle reste souple, des tours de lit à installer pour les patients qui s’agitaient et se débattaient, et des escarres à prévenir chez ceux qui ne bougeaient pas.

This word in other languages

supple(English)flexible(Español)gefügig(Deutsch)flexível(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osuple
  • sopule
  • soulpe
  • soupel
  • souplle
  • soupple
  • ssouple
  • suople

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

osuple2sopule2soulpe2soupel2souplle1soupple1ssouple1suople2
Edit distance from "souple"

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 "souple"?
"souple" is spelled S-O-U-P-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \supl\.
What does "souple" mean?
As an adjective, "souple" means: Qui est flexible, qui se plie aisément sans se rompre, sans s’abîmer.
What words are commonly confused with "souple"?
"souple" is commonly confused with "soute", "source", "sourde". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "souple"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "souple" is \supl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "souple" come from?
"souple" 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 "souple", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

sperme#10,079sonner#10,075singes#10,074sultan#10,082

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

Suzanne8 variantsrouleau8 variantsTyler8 variantsépaisse8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list