Which to use
“sourd” is an adjective and “souri” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,411
- “sourd” frequency rank
- #19,687
- “souri” frequency rank
- 30098
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sourd | souri |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dont l’acuité auditive est diminuée de façon importante ou totale, en parlant d’une personne ou d'un animal. | Participe passé masculin singulier de sourire. |
Where the eye mixes sourd and souri
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sourd with souri
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sourd is \suʁ\ while souri is \su.ʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “sourd” becomes i in “souri”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sourd is recorded at frequency rank #10,411, classified as anadj, pronounced \suʁ\. souri is at rank #19,687, tagged as averb, pronounced \su.ʁi\.
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 30098, this pair ranks #312,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sourd vs souri
Shared letters: orsu. Private to "sourd": d. Private to "souri": i.
"sourd" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "souri" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sourd" and "souri" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "sourd" vs "souri" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sourd" and "souri" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sourd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "souri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sourd" and "souri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sabri vs souri". 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 #312,492 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.