surveillant

\syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\

/\syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“surveillant” has 15 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #17,015. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#17,015
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
15
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Personne qui surveille.

Corpus desk

Index FR-surveillant · surveillant · French

surveillant · rank #17,015 · 15 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,015
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH surcharge

Nearest frequency peer: surcharge (-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 « surveillant »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « surveillant » 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).

surveillant vs surveillent
91% similar
surveillant vs surveillants
92% similar
surveillant vs surveillante
92% similar

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

Key facts for surveillant
PropertyValue
Headwordsurveillant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\
Letters11
Frequency rank#17,015
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « surveillant »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).surveillantse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « surcharge » (#17,014), « SUV » (#17,016), « sympathiques » (#17,017). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « surveillant » est au #17,015. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around surveillant (IPA \syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,015 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for surveillant, with forms such as "sruveillant", "ssurveillant", and "surevillant". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "surveillent", "surveillants", "surveillante", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is surveillant, spelled S-U-R-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Personne qui surveille.
  2. 2
    Personne chargée de la surveillance des détenus dans une prison.
  3. 3
    Personne chargée de la surveillance des élèves pendant les études, les récréations et les promenades. En général, ce sont eux qui assurent les fameuses "heures de colles", qui gèrent les absences, les retards en cours.
  4. 4
    Officier qui dans une loge assiste le vénérable, prend en charge les apprentis ou les compagnons dans leur évolution et donne la parole durant les tenues.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’est un surveillant soigneux, attentif.
  2. La morale des surveillants se bornait à menacer de leurs cannes, tantôt tirant le revolver pour donner plus de force aux locutions d’arsouille dont ils avaient l'habitude de se servir. Voilà la vie du bagne.

Synonyms

gaffegardienmatonpion

This word in other languages

warden(English)Aufsichtsperson(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • sruveillant
  • ssurveillant
  • surevillant
  • surrveillant
  • surveilalnt
  • surveilant
  • surveillannt
  • surveillantt
  • surveillatn
  • surveillnat
  • survelilant
  • surviellant
  • survveillant
  • suvreillant
  • usrveillant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of surveillant - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

sruveillant2ssurveillant1surevillant2surrveillant1surveilalnt2surveilant1surveillannt1surveillantt1
Edit distance from "surveillant"

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 "surveillant"?
"surveillant" is spelled S-U-R-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\.
What does "surveillant" mean?
As a noun, "surveillant" means: Personne qui surveille.
What words are commonly confused with "surveillant"?
"surveillant" is commonly confused with "surveillent", "surveillants", "surveillante". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "surveillant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "surveillant" is \syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "surveillant" come from?
"surveillant" 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 "surveillant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

stimulation#17,010signalement#17,005scandinaves#17,001utilisaient#17,032

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

résistent15 variantsappréciable15 variantschangerait15 variantscomportait15 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list