sourdvsstudWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sourd is a adjective, stud is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sourd” is an adjective and “stud” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,411
“sourd” frequency rank
#40,032
“stud” frequency rank
50443
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sourd stud
Definition Dont l’acuité auditive est diminuée de façon importante ou totale, en parlant d’une personne ou d'un animal. Forme de jeu de poker.

Where the eye mixes sourd and stud

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sourd
4 ch
stud

Why the eye confuses sourd with stud

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sourd is \suʁ\ while stud is \stœd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50443, 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\. stud is at rank #40,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stœd\.

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 50443, this pair ranks #162,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sourd vs stud

Shared letters: dsu. Private to "sourd": or. Private to "stud": t.

"sourd" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "stud" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sourdosurd · sorud · soudr · sourdd · sourrd · ssourd · suord
  • studsstud · stdu · sttud · studd · sutd · tsud

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sourd" and "stud" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sourd" is an adjective and "stud" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sourd" or "stud"?
"sourd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,411 in our French list, against #40,032 for "stud". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sourd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sourd" and "stud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stud vs suu". 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 #162,593 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