sans
/sænz/
"sans" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sans” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #13,416. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #13,416
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Without; lacking, especially with regard to something expected or with precedent
Corpus desk
Index EN-sans · sans · English
sans · rank #13,416 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,416
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Royce
Nearest frequency peer: Royce (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “sans”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- roofs
roofs
86,588 corpus weight
- rotate
rotate
86,587 corpus weight
- Royce
Royce
86,586 corpus weight
- sans
sans
86,585 corpus weight
- Saxon
Saxon
86,584 corpus weight
- scissors
scissors
86,583 corpus weight
What this shows “sans” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | sans |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /sænz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #13,416 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sans”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around sans (IPA /sænz/), apreposition. Corpus frequency is #13,416 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Without; lacking, especially with regard to something expected or with precedent".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sans, with forms such as "asns", "sanns", and "sanss". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SS", "say", "saw", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English saunz, sans, borrowed from Old French sans, senz, sens, from Latin sine (“without”) conflated with absēns (“absent, remote”). Compare French sans, Italian senza, Portuguese sem, and Spanish sin. The correct English form is sans, spelled S-A-N-S.
Definition
- 1Without; lacking, especially with regard to something expected or with precedent
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sans appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Bero[wne]. […] And to begin Wench, ſo God helpe me law, My loue to thee is ſound, ſance cracke or flaw. Roſa[line]. Sans, ſans, I pray you.
Those with brooms started to sweep literally, at the feet of the crowd, driving it back into the side streets from which it had emerged to form this assembly – now riders sans steeds.
Etymology
From Middle English saunz, sans, borrowed from Old French sans, senz, sens, from Latin sine (“without”) conflated with absēns (“absent, remote”). Compare French sans, Italian senza, Portuguese sem, and Spanish sin.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- asns
- sanns
- sanss
- sasn
- snas
- ssans
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sans - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sans", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).