sustenance
/ˈsʌs.tə.nəns/
"sustenance" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sustenance” has 16 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #29,486. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #29,486
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 16
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Something that provides support or nourishment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sustenance · sustenance · English
sustenance · rank #29,486 · 16 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-MID #29,486
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-HIGH 16 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sultry
Nearest frequency peer: sultry (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sustenance”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- stonewall
stonewall
70,519 corpus weight
- storied
storied
70,518 corpus weight
- sultry
sultry
70,516 corpus weight
- sustenance
sustenance
70,515 corpus weight
- swamped
swamped
70,513 corpus weight
- swivel
swivel
70,512 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sustenance” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sustenance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsʌs.tə.nəns/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #29,486 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sustenance” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 16 spelling variants around sustenance (IPA /ˈsʌs.tə.nəns/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #29,486 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Something that provides support or nourishment.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for sustenance, with forms such as "ssustenance", "ssutenance", and "susetnance". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sustenaunce, from Old French sustenance, from sustenir with the suffix -ance, from Vulgar Latin *sustenire, from Latin sustinere. Compare also Late Latin sustinentia. The correct English form is sustenance, spelled S-U-S-T-E-N-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1Something that provides support or nourishment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sustenance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.
Etymology
From Middle English sustenaunce, from Old French sustenance, from sustenir with the suffix -ance, from Vulgar Latin *sustenire, from Latin sustinere. Compare also Late Latin sustinentia.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ssustenance
- ssutenance
- susetnance
- susstenance
- susteannce
- sustenacne
- sustenancce
- sustenanec
- sustenannce
- sustenence
- sustennace
- sustennance
- sustneance
- susttenance
- sutsenance
- usstenance
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sustenance - 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.
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 "sustenance"?
What does "sustenance" mean?
What are common misspellings of "sustenance"?
How do you pronounce "sustenance"?
What is the origin of the word "sustenance"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sustenance", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "sustenance". Here's where to go from here.
- 16 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #29,486 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.