sane
/seɪn/
"sane" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sane” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,791 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #11,791
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; thinking rationally.
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 | sane |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /seɪn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #11,791 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sane” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sane is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /seɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,791 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for sane, with forms such as "asne", "sanne", and "snae". 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, "se", "she", "see", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin sānus (“healthy; sane”). Doublet of sound. The correct English form is sane, spelled S-A-N-E.
Definition
- 1Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; thinking rationally.
- 2Mentally 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.
- 3Rational; reasonable; sensible.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin sānus (“healthy; sane”). Doublet of sound.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asne,sanne,snae,ssane
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sane - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “sane”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /seɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “se” - see the side-by-side comparison. sane vs se
- 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.