sournois
\suʁ.nwa\
The verdict
“sournois” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #30,817 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #30,817
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui cache ce qu’il pense dans un but malveillant.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sournois |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \suʁ.nwa\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #30,817 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sournois” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sournois is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \suʁ.nwa\. Corpus data places it at rank #30,817 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sournois, with forms such as "osurnois", "sorunois", and "sounrois". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "surnoms", "sournoise", "souris", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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 sournois, spelled S-O-U-R-N-O-I-S.
Definition
- 1Qui cache ce qu’il pense dans un but malveillant.
- 2Qui ne se manifeste pas clairement.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: osurnois,sorunois,sounrois,sournios,sournnois,sournoiss,sournosi,souronis,sourrnois,ssournois,suornois
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sournois - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "sournois"?
What does "sournois" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sournois"?
How do you pronounce "sournois"?
What language does "sournois" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sournois”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-O-U-R-N-O-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \suʁ.nwa\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “surnoms” - see the side-by-side comparison. sournois vs surnoms
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.