surprise

\syʁ.pʁiz\

/\syʁ.pʁiz\/ noun

The verdict

“surprise” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,350. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,350
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action par laquelle on surprend.

Corpus desk

Index FR-surprise · surprise · French

surprise · rank #1,350 · 12 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,350
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH supérieur

Nearest frequency peer: supérieur (-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 « surprise »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « surprise » 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).

surprise vs surprises
89% similar
surprise vs surpris
88% similar
surprise vs sunrise
75% similar

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

Key facts for surprise
PropertyValue
Headwordsurprise
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\syʁ.pʁiz\
Letters8
Frequency rank#1,350
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « surprise »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.surprisese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « supérieur » (#1,349), « U » (#1,351), « sources » (#1,348). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « surprise » est au #1,350. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around surprise (IPA \syʁ.pʁiz\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,350 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for surprise, with forms such as "sruprise", "ssurprise", and "suprrise". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "surprises", "surpris", "sunrise", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is surprise, spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action par laquelle on surprend.
  2. 2
    Événement inattendu.
  3. 3
    Qui n'est pas attendu.
  4. 4
    Qui réserve une surprise; dont le contenu n'est pas révélé d'emblée.
  5. 5
    État de l’esprit qui est frappé par quelque chose d’inattendu.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il s’est rendu maître de cette place par surprise.
  2. Il a usé de surprise.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • sruprise
  • ssurprise
  • suprrise
  • surpirse
  • surpprise
  • surpries
  • surprisse
  • surprrise
  • surprsie
  • surrpise
  • surrprise
  • usrprise

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of surprise - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

sruprise2ssurprise1suprrise2surpirse2surpprise1surpries2surprisse1surprrise1
Edit distance from "surprise"

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 "surprise"?
"surprise" is spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \syʁ.pʁiz\.
What does "surprise" mean?
As a noun, "surprise" means: Action par laquelle on surprend.
What words are commonly confused with "surprise"?
"surprise" is commonly confused with "surprises", "surpris", "sunrise". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "surprise"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "surprise" is \syʁ.pʁiz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "surprise" come from?
"surprise" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "surprise", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list