essai

[e.sɛ]

/[e.sɛ]/ noun

The verdict

“essai” is uncommon Spanish (frequency #78,213 among 5,243 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,213
frequency rank, Spanish
5,243
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ensayo, experimento, intento, prueba.

Corpus desk

Index ES-essai · essai · Spanish

essai · rank #78,213 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #78,213
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,243
  • PHOTO-FINISH estafada

Nearest frequency peer: estafada (+1 rank slots)

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.

Rangos de cola larga cerca de “essai”

Banda escasa: las barras invierten el rango para que lo raro se lea más corto

corpus weight

What this shows Vista de cola larga: dónde “essai” se sitúa frente a rangos españoles igualmente raros.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for essai
PropertyValue
Headwordessai
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[e.sɛ]
Letters5
Frequency rank#78,213
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cola larga: rango de “essai” en español

Esta escala corre desde el núcleo del español cotidiano (izquierda) hasta el rastro de formas rara vez usadas (derecha).essaicae en esta cola de rareza:

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

El eje es logarítmico: cada tick marca unas diez veces menos frecuencia. Vecinos raros de la misma franja: “estafada” (#78,214), “estercolero” (#78,215), “escultora” (#78,210). Entre 5,243 lemas con “E”, “essai” va en #78,213. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

essai is uncommon Spanish at frequency #78,213 among 5,243 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [e.sɛ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

essai has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is essai, spelled E-S-S-A-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ensayo, experimento, intento, prueba.
  2. 2
    Ensayo (composición de longitud media que explora una cuestión o sujeto particular).

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Il a succédé après plusieurs essais.

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "essai"?
"essai" is spelled E-S-S-A-I. The IPA pronunciation is [e.sɛ].
What does "essai" mean?
As a noun, "essai" means: Ensayo, experimento, intento, prueba.
How do you pronounce "essai"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "essai" is [e.sɛ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "essai" come from?
"essai" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 Spanish words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list