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• sur
  sur

  preposition

  upon; on the basis of.
• Sur
  Sur

  noun

  a town in S Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea: site of ancient port of Tyre.
• sur-
  sur-

  a prefix meaning “over, above,” “in addition,” occurring mainly in loanwords from French and partial calques of French words.

sur

¹ American  

[sur] / sɜr /

preposition

Law.

1. upon; on the basis of.

   sur mortgage.

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Sur ² American  

[soor] / sʊər /

noun

1. a town in S Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea: site of ancient port of Tyre.

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sur- ³ American  

1. a prefix meaning “over, above,” “in addition,” occurring mainly in loanwords from French and partial calques of French words.

   surcharge; surname; surrender; survive.

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sur- ⁴ American  

1. variant of sub- before r: surrogate.

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Sur ¹ British  

/ sʊə /

noun

1. transliteration of the Arabic name for Tyre

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sur- ² British  

prefix

1. over; above; beyond Compare super-

   surcharge

   surrealism

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sur- ³ British  

prefix

1. a variant of sub-

   surrogate

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Etymology

Origin of sur¹

< French < Latin super super-

Origin of sur-³

Middle English < Old French < Latin super- super-

Example Sentences

Magda, the manager, helps me with a goat cheese, Mothais sur Feuille, wrapped in a fig leaf.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 10, 2025

From his own observations he noted the ramparts sur Brahe wrote: “I have been occupied in alchemy, as much as by the celestial studies, from my 23rd year.”

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

“Petite escargot porte sur son dos,” Dad sings at the table.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

What is perhaps most striking about ‘Poeme sur le desastre de Lisbonne’ is its astonishing challenge to the prevailing seventeenth- and eighteenth-century concept of, and faith in, God.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

The standard French translation of ‘evidence-based medicine’ is médecine fondée sur les faits.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton