sourdine

\suʁ.din\

/\suʁ.din\/ noun

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

The verdict

“sourdine” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #40,024. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#40,024
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Commande d’un appareil audiovisuel qui permet de réduire ou supprimer le signal sonore, puis de le rétablir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sourdine · sourdine · French

sourdine · rank #40,024 · 11 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #40,024
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH soupirant

Nearest frequency peer: soupirant (-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 « sourdine »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sourdine » 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).

sourdine vs sourire
75% similar
sourdine vs surdité
63% similar
sourdine vs sourde
75% similar

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

Key facts for sourdine
PropertyValue
Headwordsourdine
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\suʁ.din\
Letters8
Frequency rank#40,024
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sourdine »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sourdinese 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 « soupirant » (#40,023), « Sousa » (#40,025), « sounds » (#40,022). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sourdine » est au #40,024. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around sourdine (IPA \suʁ.din\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #40,024 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sourdine, with forms such as "osurdine", "sorudine", and "soudrine". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "sourire", "surdité", "sourde", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sourdine, spelled S-O-U-R-D-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Commande d’un appareil audiovisuel qui permet de réduire ou supprimer le signal sonore, puis de le rétablir.
  2. 2
    Appareil qui est fixé ou qu’on adapte à certains instruments de musique, pour en affaiblir le son.
  3. 3
    Frein, atténuation.
  4. 4
    Ne plus parler de quelque chose, le mettre au second plan.
  5. 5
    Sourdière.
  6. 6
    Dans les montres mécaniques à répétition de sonnerie, ensemble mécanique composé d'un support, d'un bras, d'un bouton et d'un petit ressort, qui une fois enclenché empêche le marteau de frapper sur le timbre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Tatata! Cette sourdine améliore le son…
  2. Il faut mettre une sourdine dans cette trompette.

This word in other languages

sordine(English)sordina(Español)Dämpfer(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osurdine
  • sorudine
  • soudrine
  • sourddine
  • sourdien
  • sourdinne
  • sourdnie
  • souridne
  • sourrdine
  • ssourdine
  • suordine

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

osurdine2sorudine2soudrine2sourddine1sourdien2sourdinne1sourdnie2souridne2
Edit distance from "sourdine"

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 "sourdine"?
"sourdine" is spelled S-O-U-R-D-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \suʁ.din\.
What does "sourdine" mean?
As a noun, "sourdine" means: Commande d’un appareil audiovisuel qui permet de réduire ou supprimer le signal sonore, puis de le rétablir.
What words are commonly confused with "sourdine"?
"sourdine" is commonly confused with "sourire", "surdité", "sourde". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sourdine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sourdine" is \suʁ.din\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sourdine" come from?
"sourdine" 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 "sourdine", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

souiller#40,019Stafford#40,030surélevé#40,036septante#40,008

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

sticker11 variantssubject11 variantsscanners11 variantstronqué11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list