sur le bout des doigts
\syʁ lə bu de dwa\
The verdict
“sur le bout des doigts” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sur le bout des doigts |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \syʁ lə bu de dwa\ |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sur le bout des doigts” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sur le bout des doigts is 22 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \syʁ lə bu de dwa\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sur le bout des doigts, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 sur le bout des doigts, spelled S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -D-O-I-G-T-S.
Definition
- 1Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sur le bout des doigts"?
What does "sur le bout des doigts" mean?
How do you pronounce "sur le bout des doigts"?
What language does "sur le bout des doigts" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sur le bout des doigts”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -D-O-I-G-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \syʁ lə bu de dwa\ (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
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.