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PlainSpell

since

/sɪn(t)s/adverb, preposition, conjunction

since is spelled S-I-N-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is sinse: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 18 of all searches for the word. Since is an adverb meaning “From a specified time in the past”.

How many letters and syllables are in since?

Letters5: S-I-N-C-E
Syllables1
In writing562 times per million words; the 173rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, sinse, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell since?

Since is spelled S-I-N-C-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for since in either form.

sincethe right spelling2,430 searches a month
sinses in place of c140 searches a month
sicnen and c swapped10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is since?

Since appears 562 times per million words in written English, the 173rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce since?

  • /sɪn(t)s/

Since has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-since.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with since

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

sense vs since2,400 G
sence vs since70 G

Also written: sence, sith.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What does since mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adverb

  1. 1

    From a specified time in the past.

    I met him last year, but haven't seen him since.

preposition

  1. 1

    Continuously during that period of time.

    I'd known her only since the previous year, so from/since the moment we got married we’ve quarrelled.

  2. 2

    At certain points during that period of time.

conjunction

  1. 1

    From the time that.

    I have loved you since I first met you.

  2. 2

    Because.

    Since you didn't call, we left without you.

  3. 3

    obsoleteWhen or that.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Since in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdepuis (from a specified time in the past), depuis que (from the time that), puisque, vu que, étant donné que (because)
Germanseitdem, seither (from a specified time in the past), weil, da (because), seit (from (time))
Portuguesedesde, desde então (from a specified time in the past), desde que, desde quando (from the time that), já que (because), a partir de (from (time))
Spanishdesde entonces (from a specified time in the past), desde que (from the time that), ya que, supuesto que (because), desde (from (time))

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does since come from?

From Middle English syns, synnes, contraction of earlier sithens, sithence, from sithen (“after, since”) ( + -s, adverbial genitive suffix), from Old English sīþþan, from the phrase sīþ þǣm (“after/since that (time)”), from sīþ (“since, after”) + þǣm dative singular of þæt. Cognate with Dutch sinds (“since”), German seit (“since”), Danish siden (“since”), Icelandic síðan (“since”) Scots syne (“since”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after since