sumac

/\sy.mak\/ noun

The verdict

“sumac” is an uncommon French word, ranked #71,938 in French word frequency and used as a noun.

#71,938
frequency rank, French
5
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Nom donné à des arbres et des arbrisseaux à feuilles alternes, qui, bien que se ressemblant, appartiennent à des genres différents en particulier les genres Rhus, Toxicodendron et Cotinus, totalisa...

Key facts for sumac
PropertyValue
Headwordsumac
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sy.mak\
Letters5
Frequency rank#71,938
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “sumac” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). sumac lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for sumac is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sy.mak\. Corpus data places it at rank #71,938 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No misspelling variants are generated for sumac in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is sumac, spelled S-U-M-A-C, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom donné à des arbres et des arbrisseaux à feuilles alternes, qui, bien que se ressemblant, appartiennent à des genres différents en particulier les genres Rhus, Toxicodendron et Cotinus, totalisant environ 100 espèces différentes.
  2. 2
    Feuilles séchées et réduites en poudre du sumac des corroyeurs (Rhus coriaria), riches en gallotanins, et utilisées pour tanner les peaux.
  3. 3
    Drupes du sumac des corroyeurs (Rhus coriaria) réduites en poudre ; épice au goût acide, terreux et boisé, utilisée comme agent acidifiant en Iran, au Liban, en Syrie et en Turquie.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #71,938 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sumac"?
"sumac" is spelled S-U-M-A-C. The IPA pronunciation is \sy.mak\.
What does "sumac" mean?
As a noun, "sumac" means: Nom donné à des arbres et des arbrisseaux à feuilles alternes, qui, bien que se ressemblant, appartiennent à des genres différents en particulier les genres Rhus, Toxicodendron et Cotinus, totalisa...
How do you pronounce "sumac"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sumac" is \sy.mak\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sumac" come from?
"sumac" 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.

Using “sumac”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is S-U-M-A-C — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \sy.mak\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.