souratevssourdeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“sourate” and “sourde” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,358
“sourate” frequency rank
#14,569
“sourde” frequency rank
42927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sourate sourde
Definition Chapitre du Coran. Femme sourde.

Where the eye mixes sourate and sourde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sourate runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against sourde's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
sourate
6 ch
sourde

Visual trap between sourate and sourde

A purely visual mix-up. sourate (\su.ʁat\) and sourde (\suʁd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sourate is recorded at frequency rank #28,358, classified as anoun, pronounced \su.ʁat\. sourde is at rank #14,569, tagged as anoun, pronounced \suʁd\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42927, this pair ranks #221,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sourate vs sourde

Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "sourate": at. Private to "sourde": d.

"sourate" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "sourde" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sourateosurate · soruate · souarte · souraet · souratte · sourrate · sourtae · ssourate
  • sourdeosurde · sorude · soudre · sourdde · soured · sourrde · ssourde · suorde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sourate" and "sourde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\su.ʁat\ versus \suʁd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sourate" vs "sourde" - which ranks higher?
"sourde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,569 in our French list, against #28,358 for "sourate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sourate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sourde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sourate" and "sourde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sourate vs soutane". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #221,870 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list