absence

/\ap.sɑ̃s\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,218

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

8

similar word pairs

absence is aFrenchnoun. It means: Inexistence. Pronounced \ap.sɑ̃s\. It ranks #1,218 in French word frequency. Often confused with agence and absent.

Key facts for absence
PropertyValue
Headwordabsence
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ap.sɑ̃s\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,218
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs8
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of absence in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for absence is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ap.sɑ̃s\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,218 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for absence, with forms such as "abbsence", "abesnce", and "absecne". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "agence", "absent", "Arsène", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is absence, spelled A-B-S-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Inexistence.
  2. 2
    Fait d’être absent, éloignement géographique et temporel.
  3. 3
    Défaut de présence à une réunion, à une assignation, à un appel.
  4. 4
    Situation d’une personne dont on n’a pas reçu de nouvelles depuis une certaine époque et dont la résidence actuelle n’est pas connue.
  5. 5
    Perte passagère de la mémoire voire arrêt momentané de la conscience. Il s’agit d’une manifestation mineure de l’épilepsie généralisée.
  6. 6
    Au sens moral.
  7. 7
    Distraction, manque d’attention.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: abbsence,abesnce,absecne,absencce,absenec,absennce,absnece,abssence,asbence,basence

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for absence

Misspelling Variants of "absence"

abbsence8abesnce7absecne7absencce8absenec7absennce8absnece7abssence8
Misspelling Variants of "absence"

Frequency rank: #1,218 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "absence"?
"absence" is spelled A-B-S-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ap.sɑ̃s\.
What does "absence" mean?
As a noun, "absence" means: Inexistence.
What words are commonly confused with "absence"?
"absence" is commonly confused with "agence", "absent", "Arsène". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "absence"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "absence" is \ap.sɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "absence" come from?
"absence" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.