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sans-serif

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "sans-serif", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "sans-serif" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "sans-serif" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

sans serif is aEnglishnoun. It means: A typeface in which the characters do not have serifs. Pronounced /ˌsæn(z)ˈsɛɹɪf/.

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Key facts for sans serif
PropertyValue
Headwordsans serif
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌsæn(z)ˈsɛɹɪf/
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

sans serif is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for sans serif is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌsæn(z)ˈsɛɹɪf/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A typeface in which the characters do not have serifs.".

No misspelling variants are generated for sans serif in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From sans + serif. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is sans serif, spelled S-A-N-S- -S-E-R-I-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A typeface in which the characters do not have serifs.

Etymology

From sans + serif.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sans serif"?
"sans serif" is spelled S-A-N-S- -S-E-R-I-F. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌsæn(z)ˈsɛɹɪf/.
What does "sans serif" mean?
As a noun, "sans serif" means: A typeface in which the characters do not have serifs.
How do you pronounce "sans serif"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sans serif" is /ˌsæn(z)ˈsɛɹɪf/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "sans serif"?
From sans + serif. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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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.