SUV

\ɛs.y.ve\

/\ɛs.y.ve\/ noun

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

The verdict

“SUV” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #17,016) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#17,016
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Voiture bicorps, initialement tout-terrain, souvent à quatre roues motrices, dont l’espace utile commun aux passagers et aux bagages est modulable.

Corpus desk

Index FR-suv · SUV · French

SUV · rank #17,016 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,016
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH surveillant

Nearest frequency peer: surveillant (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « SUV »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « SUV » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

SUV vs sy
0% similar
SUV vs SV
67% similar
SUV vs SVP
33% similar

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

Key facts for SUV
PropertyValue
HeadwordSUV
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛs.y.ve\
Letters3
Frequency rank#17,016
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « SUV »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).SUVse 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 « surveillant » (#17,015), « sympathiques » (#17,017), « surcharge » (#17,014). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « SUV » est au #17,016. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for SUV is neighbouring look-alikes ("sy", "SV", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɛs.y.ve\. Frequency #17,016 among 6,032 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for SUV in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sy", "SV", "SVP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is SUV, spelled S-U-V.

Definition

  1. 1
    Voiture bicorps, initialement tout-terrain, souvent à quatre roues motrices, dont l’espace utile commun aux passagers et aux bagages est modulable.
  2. 2
    Voiture bicorps, initialement tout-terrain, souvent à quatre roues motrices, dont l’espace utile commun aux passagers et aux bagages est modulable.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La taille croissante des voitures a des conséquences concrètes dans nos rues: les gros SUV (Sport utility vehicle) et les pick-up à l’américaine ne tiennent pas dans les emplacements prévus et empiètent sur les trottoirs ou sur la route, commente Nicolas Raffin, porte-parole de Transports & Environnement.
  2. Nés pour les loisirs et la famille, les SUV partent aussi à l’assaut des villes grâce à des modèles de poche… Le succès des SUV citadins vient de leur design (premier critère d’achat), de leur assise en hauteur pour mieux voir la route.

Synonyms

tout-terrain de loisirTTLVUSvéhicule utilitaire sportvéhicule utilitaire sportif4x4 urbain4X4 urbain4×4 urbain

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 "SUV"?
"SUV" is spelled S-U-V. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛs.y.ve\.
What does "SUV" mean?
As a noun, "SUV" means: Voiture bicorps, initialement tout-terrain, souvent à quatre roues motrices, dont l’espace utile commun aux passagers et aux bagages est modulable.
What words are commonly confused with "SUV"?
"SUV" is commonly confused with "sy", "SV", "SVP". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "SUV"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "SUV" is \ɛs.y.ve\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "SUV" come from?
"SUV" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "SUV", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sci#17,003paf#16,960Noé#16,956imp#16,907

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list