Which to use
“sourde” and “sourdine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,569
- “sourde” frequency rank
- #40,024
- “sourdine” frequency rank
- 54593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sourde | sourdine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme sourde. | Commande d’un appareil audiovisuel qui permet de réduire ou supprimer le signal sonore, puis de le rétablir. |
Where the eye mixes sourde and sourdine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. sourde runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against sourdine's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sourde and sourdine
A purely visual mix-up. sourde (\suʁd\) and sourdine (\suʁ.din\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sourde is recorded at frequency rank #14,569, classified as anoun, pronounced \suʁd\. sourdine is at rank #40,024, tagged as anoun, pronounced \suʁ.din\.
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 54593, this pair ranks #132,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sourde vs sourdine
Shared letters: deorsu. Private to "sourde": -. Private to "sourdine": in.
"sourde" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "sourdine" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sourde" and "sourdine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sourde" or "sourdine"?
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 "sourde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sourdine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sourde" and "sourdine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sardine vs sourdine". 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 #132,999 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.