sous-sol
\su.sɔl\
The verdict
“sous-sol” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Partie d’un bâtiment qui est en dessous du rez-de-chaussée.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sous-sol · sous-sol · French
sous-sol · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 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-sol |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \su.sɔl\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sous-sol » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sous-sol is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \su.sɔl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sous-sol, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sous-sol, spelled S-O-U-S---S-O-L.
Definition
- 1Partie d’un bâtiment qui est en dessous du rez-de-chaussée.
- 2Couche du sol qui est en dessous de la terre végétale.
- 3Ensemble des formations minérales qui gisent sous le sol arable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sous-sol appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Deux escaliers, sous un maigre lumignon, plongent aussitôt vers un sous-sol.
Comme si l’opinion d’un Québécois dans son sous-sol allait avoir quelque incidence sur le résultat de l’élection américaine.
Synonyms
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.