sauté
/ˈsəʊteɪ/
"saute" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sauté” is uncommon English (frequency #51,976 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,976
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To cook (food) using a small amount of fat in an open pan over a relatively high heat, allowing the food to brown and form a crust stopping it from sticking to the pan as it cooks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sauté |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈsəʊteɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #51,976 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sauté” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sauté is uncommon English at frequency #51,976 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈsəʊteɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To cook (food) using a small amount of fat in an open pan over a relatively high heat, allowing the food to brown and form a crust stopping it from sticking to the pan as it cooks.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sauté, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French sauté, past participle of sauter (“to sauté”, literally “to jump”); in cooking, diced onions jump in the pan from the hot oil. The correct English form is sauté, spelled S-A-U-T-É.
Definition
- 1To cook (food) using a small amount of fat in an open pan over a relatively high heat, allowing the food to brown and form a crust stopping it from sticking to the pan as it cooks.
Etymology
Borrowed from French sauté, past participle of sauter (“to sauté”, literally “to jump”); in cooking, diced onions jump in the pan from the hot oil.
This word in other languages
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 “sauté”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-U-T-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsəʊteɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.