sane
/seɪn/adjective
sane is spelled S-A-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sain vs sane” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, sane means “Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; thinking rationally” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sane?
| Letters | 4: S-A-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sane?
Sane appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sane?
- /seɪn/
Sane has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sane.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sane
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: sain (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sane?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sane.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sean, nase.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sane
- saner comparative
- sanest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sane mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; thinking rationally.
a sane mind
- 2
Mentally sound; possessing a rational mind; having the mental faculties in such condition as to be able to anticipate and judge the effect of one's actions in an ordinary manner.
a sane person
- 3
Rational; reasonable; sensible.
Try to go to bed at a sane time before your exams.
noun
- 1
Initialism of sexual assault nurse examiner.
- 2
Ellipsis of SANE disc, a type of black hole accretion disc.
adjective
- 1
Acronym of standard and normal evolution.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sane in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sain , sain d'esprit |
| German | vernünftig , zurechnungsfähig |
| Portuguese | são |
| Spanish | cuerdo, estar en su acuerdo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sane come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin sānus (“healthy; sane”). Doublet of sound.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).