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” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,330. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,330
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sauce · sauce · English

sauce · rank #4,330 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,330
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH SA

Nearest frequency peer: SA (-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 “sauce”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “sauce” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

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)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sauce”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).saucelands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “SA” (#4,329), “seal” (#4,331), “ruled” (#4,328). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “sauce” is #4,330. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around sauce (IPA /sɔːs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,330 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sauce appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. apple sauce; mint sauce
  2. [Prince Paul.] […] But, believe me, you are wrong to run down cookery. For myself, the only immortality I desire is to invent a new sauce. I have never had time enough to think seriously about it, but I feel it is in me, I feel it is in me.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sauce", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ruled#4,328slide#4,335rated#4,324tiger#4,340

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

stem6 variantsnuts6 variantsbeast6 variantsclay6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list