souverain

\su.vʁɛ̃\

/\su.vʁɛ̃\/ adj

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

The verdict

“souverain” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,502. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,502
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est suprême ; excellent ; qui est au plus haut point en son genre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-souverain · souverain · French

souverain · rank #5,502 · 12 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,502
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH salarié

Nearest frequency peer: salarié (-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 « souverain »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « souverain » 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).

souverain vs suzerain
78% similar
souverain vs souverains
90% similar
souverain vs souveraine
90% similar

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

Key facts for souverain
PropertyValue
Headwordsouverain
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\su.vʁɛ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#5,502
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « souverain »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).souverainse 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 « salarié » (#5,501), « suisses » (#5,503), « saisi » (#5,500). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « souverain » est au #5,502. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around souverain (IPA \su.vʁɛ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #5,502 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for souverain, with forms such as "osuverain", "souevrain", and "souvearin". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "suzerain", "souverains", "souveraine", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, 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 souverain, spelled S-O-U-V-E-R-A-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est suprême ; excellent ; qui est au plus haut point en son genre.
  2. 2
    En parlant d’un remède, dont l’efficacité est totale.
  3. 3
    Qui détient l’autorité suprême, ou qui en est revêtu.
  4. 4
    Qui appartient à l’État ou qui est dû par l'État.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Si je pensais que le souverain bien fût la joie, je ne douterais point qu'on ne dût tâcher de se rendre joyeux, à quelque prix que ce pût être, et j'approuverais la brutalité de ceux qui noient leurs déplaisirs dans le vin, ou les étourdissent avec du pétun.
  2. Mme Sidonie, malgré ses travaux écrasants, trouva moyen de venir chaque soir faire des tisanes, qu’elle prétendait souveraines.

This word in other languages

sovereign(English)soberano(Español)souverän(Deutsch)soberano(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osuverain
  • souevrain
  • souvearin
  • souverainn
  • souverani
  • souverian
  • souverrain
  • souvreain
  • souvverain
  • sovuerain
  • ssouverain
  • suoverain

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of souverain - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

osuverain2souevrain2souvearin2souverainn1souverani2souverian2souverrain1souvreain2
Edit distance from "souverain"

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 "souverain"?
"souverain" is spelled S-O-U-V-E-R-A-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \su.vʁɛ̃\.
What does "souverain" mean?
As an adjective, "souverain" means: Qui est suprême ; excellent ; qui est au plus haut point en son genre.
What words are commonly confused with "souverain"?
"souverain" is commonly confused with "suzerain", "souverains", "souveraine". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "souverain"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "souverain" is \su.vʁɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "souverain" come from?
"souverain" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "souverain", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

reçoivent#5,497tribunaux#5,511rapproche#5,491accueilli#5,517

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

renoncer12 variantsénergies12 variantsprovient12 variantsauxquelles12 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list