sauce

/sɔːs/

//sɔːs// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"sauce" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sauce” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,330 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#4,330
frequency rank, English
5
letters
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

sauce vs sue
60% similar
sauce vs such
60% similar
sauce vs sure
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for sauce
PropertyValue
Headwordsauce
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/sɔːs/
Letters5
Frequency rank#4,330
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “sauce” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). sauce lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for sauce is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɔːs/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,330 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 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 sauce, with forms such as "asuce", "sacue", and "saucce". 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, "sue", "such", "sure", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *séh₂ls From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa. For the meaning development compare Ancient … The correct English form is sauce, spelled S-A-U-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.
  2. 2
    Tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in
  3. 3
    Alcohol, booze.
  4. 4
    Vitality; capability or talent.
  5. 5
    Anabolic steroids.
  6. 6
    A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.
  7. 7
    Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.
  8. 8
    Vegetables.
  9. 9
    Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.

Etymology

PIE word *séh₂ls From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa. For the meaning development compare Ancient Greek ἥδυσμα (hḗdusma) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (whence also English sweet).

Synonyms

sowl

This word in other languages

salsa(Español)sauce(Français)Soße(Deutsch)molho(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: asuce,sacue,saucce,sauec,ssauce,suace

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sauce - 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.

asuce2sacue2saucce1sauec2ssauce1suace2
Edit distance from "sauce"

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

How do you spell "sauce"?
"sauce" is spelled S-A-U-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /sɔːs/.
What does "sauce" mean?
As a noun, "sauce" means: A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.
What words are commonly confused with "sauce"?
"sauce" is commonly confused with "sue", "such", "sure". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sauce"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sauce" is /sɔːs/. 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 "sauce"?
PIE word *séh₂ls From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa. For the meaning development compar... 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.

Using “sauce”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-A-U-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /sɔːs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “sue” - see the side-by-side comparison. sauce vs sue
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list