summary

adj

The verdict

“summary” is uncommon French (frequency #61,921 among 394,209 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,921
frequency rank, French
394,209
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sommaire.

Key facts for summary
PropertyValue
Headwordsummary
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
Letters7
Frequency rank#61,921
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “summary” 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). summary lands here:

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

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

Rare enough to double-check

summary is uncommon French at frequency #61,921 among 394,209 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sommaire.".

No misspelling variants are generated for summary in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is summary, spelled S-U-M-M-A-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sommaire.

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 "summary"?
"summary" is spelled S-U-M-M-A-R-Y.
What does "summary" mean?
As an adjective, "summary" means: Sommaire.
What language does "summary" come from?
"summary" 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 “summary”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is S-U-M-M-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Other uncommon French words near this rank

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list