sabre
/ˈseɪ.bə/
"sabre" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sabre” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,350 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,350
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A light sword with a curved blade, sharp along the front edge, part of the back edge, and at the point.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sabre |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈseɪ.bə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #28,350 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sabre” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sabre is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈseɪ.bə/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,350 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sabre, with forms such as "asbre", "sabbre", and "sabrre". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Sar", "same", "sure", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French sabre, from German Säbel, from Polish szabla, from Hungarian szablya. Cognate with Danish sabel, Russian са́бля (sáblja), Serbo-Croatian сабља, Sicilian sciàbbula. The correct English form is sabre, spelled S-A-B-R-E.
Definition
- 1A light sword with a curved blade, sharp along the front edge, part of the back edge, and at the point.
- 2A modern fencing sword modeled after the sabre.
Etymology
Borrowed from French sabre, from German Säbel, from Polish szabla, from Hungarian szablya. Cognate with Danish sabel, Russian са́бля (sáblja), Serbo-Croatian сабља, Sicilian sciàbbula.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asbre,sabbre,sabrre,sarbe,sbare,ssabre
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sabre - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “sabre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-B-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈseɪ.bə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Sar” - see the side-by-side comparison. sabre vs Sar
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.