Sauce or source?
sauce is a noun meaning “A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food”; source is a noun meaning “The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.)…”. They sound the same (/sɔːs/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) source is about 7.1 times as common as sauce.
What is the difference between sauce and source?
| sauce | source | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, suffix | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food AustraliaIndiaUKTomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in To add sauce to; to season | The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired Spring; fountainhead; wellhead; any collection of water on or under the surface of the ground in which a stream originates To obtain or procure: used especially of a business resource |
| Example | apple sauce; mint sauce | The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling |
| Forms | sauces | sources |
| Pronunciation | /sɔːs/ /soːs/ /sɔs/ | /sɔːs/ /sɔɹs/ /so(ː)ɹs/ |
| In writing | 20 times per million words | 141 times per million words |
Sources: sauce and source in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of sauce and source
sauce
- 1
A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food
apple sauce; mint sauce
- 2
To add sauce to; to season
- 3
Alternative form of source, often used when requesting the source of an image or other posted material
- 4
slangUsed to add emphasis to adjectives, especially those that relate to cool- or uncoolness
awesome + -sauce → awesomesauce
- 5
AustraliaIndiaUKTomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in
[meat] pie and [tomato] sauce
- 6
To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate
- 7
slangAlcohol, booze
Maybe you should lay off the sauce
- 8
To make poignant; to give zest, flavour or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive
source
- 1
The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired
The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling
- 2
To obtain or procure: used especially of a business resource
- 3
Spring; fountainhead; wellhead; any collection of water on or under the surface of the ground in which a stream originates
The main sources of the Euphrates River are the Karasu and Murat Rivers
- 4
To find information about (a quotation)'s source (from which it comes): to find a citation for
- 5
A reporter's informant
- 6
Source code
- 7
The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET)
- 8
A node in a directed graph whose edges all go out from it; one with no entering edges
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, sauce or source?
sauce appears 20 times per million words; source 141 times per million words.
sauce 20 times per million wordssource 141 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).