sournois

\suʁ.nwa\

/\suʁ.nwa\/ adj

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

The verdict

“sournois” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #30,817. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#30,817
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui cache ce qu’il pense dans un but malveillant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sournois · sournois · French

sournois · rank #30,817 · 11 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #30,817
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH solvant

Nearest frequency peer: solvant (-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 « sournois »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sournois » 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).

sournois vs surnoms
75% similar
sournois vs sournoise
89% similar
sournois vs souris
75% similar

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

Key facts for sournois
PropertyValue
Headwordsournois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\suʁ.nwa\
Letters8
Frequency rank#30,817
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sournois »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sournoisse 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 « solvant » (#30,816), « spécialiser » (#30,818), « soliste » (#30,815). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sournois » est au #30,817. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around sournois (IPA \suʁ.nwa\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #30,817 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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

  1. 1
    Qui cache ce qu’il pense dans un but malveillant.
  2. 2
    Qui ne se manifeste pas clairement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Taisez-vous, bonne pièce. Vous faites la sournoise ; mais je vous connais il y a longtemps, et vous êtes une dessalée.
  2. Les petits voleurs restaient, les uns debout, les autres accotés contre le lit ou la huche, tous morveux et sales, bien portants d’ailleurs, grugeant leurs prunes sans rien dire, mais regardant l’étranger d’un œil sournois et narquois.

Synonyms

ratoureuxrusé

This word in other languages

surreptitious(English)astuto(Español)hinterlistig(Deutsch)astuto(Português)

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.

osurnois2sorunois2sounrois2sournios2sournnois1sournoiss1sournosi2souronis2
Edit distance from "sournois"

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"?
"sournois" is spelled S-O-U-R-N-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \suʁ.nwa\.
What does "sournois" mean?
As an adjective, "sournois" means: Qui cache ce qu’il pense dans un but malveillant.
What words are commonly confused with "sournois"?
"sournois" is commonly confused with "surnoms", "sournoise", "souris". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sournois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sournois" is \suʁ.nwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sournois" come from?
"sournois" 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 "sournois", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

sneakers#30,812schiller#30,802savoyard#30,800Saunders#30,799

Similar misspelling depth

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

solvant11 variantstailleurs11 variantstendons11 variantstiendrai11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list