dans

/\dɑ̃\/ prep

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#20

in French word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

dans is aFrenchprep. It means: Préposition de lieu qui marque le rapport d’une personne ou d’une chose à ce qui la contient. Introduit un complément circonstanciel de lieu. Pronounced \dɑ̃\. It ranks #20 in French word frequency. Often confused with Ds and DN.

Key facts for dans
PropertyValue
Headworddans
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPrep
IPA\dɑ̃\
Letters4
Frequency rank#20
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for dans is 4 letters long, classified as aprep, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \dɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #20 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for dans, with forms such as "adns", "danns", and "danss". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ds", "DN", "des", 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 dans, spelled D-A-N-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Préposition de lieu qui marque le rapport d’une personne ou d’une chose à ce qui la contient. Introduit un complément circonstanciel de lieu.
  2. 2
    Désigne la situation qu’une personne occupe, l’état où elle est, la disposition où elle se trouve, etc.
  3. 3
    Avec.
  4. 4
    Selon.
  5. 5
    Avec des mots qui indiquent une époque, une durée.
  6. 6
    Indique un moment postérieur au moment de l’énonciation.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: adns,danns,danss,dasn,ddans,dnas

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for dans

Misspelling Variants of "dans"

adns4danns5danss5dasn4ddans5dnas4
Misspelling Variants of "dans"

Frequency rank: #20 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dans"?
"dans" is spelled D-A-N-S. The IPA pronunciation is \dɑ̃\.
What does "dans" mean?
As a prep, "dans" means: Préposition de lieu qui marque le rapport d’une personne ou d’une chose à ce qui la contient. Introduit un complément circonstanciel de lieu.
What words are commonly confused with "dans"?
"dans" is commonly confused with "Ds", "DN", "des". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "dans"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dans" is \dɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dans" come from?
"dans" 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 D in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

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