sous-maîtresse
\su.mɛ.tʁɛs\
The verdict
“sous-maîtresse” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Équivalent au xixᵉ siècle d’institutrice.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sous-maitresse · sous-maîtresse · French
sous-maîtresse · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sous-maîtresse |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \su.mɛ.tʁɛs\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sous-maîtresse » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sous-maîtresse is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \su.mɛ.tʁɛs\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sous-maîtresse, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is sous-maîtresse, spelled S-O-U-S---M-A-Î-T-R-E-S-S-E.
Definition
- 1Équivalent au xixᵉ siècle d’institutrice.
- 2Celle qui, dans une maison d’éducation, surveille les élèves et supplée au besoin le maître ou la maîtresse.
- 3Femme qui seconde la tenancière principale d’une maison de prostitution.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sous-maîtresse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il avait une fille, ancienne sous-maîtresse dans le pensionnat Lagrave, mariée à un instituteur de la rue Saint-Hyacinthe, M. Barniol.
Au flanc de la colonne, la sous-maîtresse, un paroissien à la main, s’agitait et fronçait les sourcils.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.