sous-tendre
\su.tɑ̃dʁ\
The verdict
“sous-tendre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Prendre la position de la corde par rapport à son arc de cercle.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sous-tendre · sous-tendre · French
sous-tendre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 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-tendre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \su.tɑ̃dʁ\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sous-tendre » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sous-tendre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \su.tɑ̃dʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for sous-tendre in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is sous-tendre, spelled S-O-U-S---T-E-N-D-R-E.
Definition
- 1Prendre la position de la corde par rapport à son arc de cercle.
- 2Soutenir, être à la base d’une autre chose.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sous-tendre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La corde qui sous-tend dans une circonférence un arc de soixante degrés est égale au rayon.
Une intelligence qui se met alors à chercher les origines des reflets, à les distinguer de leur source et à les isoler de leurs réverbérations. Bref, dès son apparition, l’intelligence humaine se met à chercher les causes profondes de ce qui sous-tend son environnement.
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.