dass

\das\

/\das\/ name

The verdict

“dass” is uncommon French (frequency #54,518 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,518
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Directeur des affaires sanitaires et sociales.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dass · dass · French

dass · rank #54,518 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,518
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dardanelles

Nearest frequency peer: Dardanelles (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « dass »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « dass » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for dass
PropertyValue
Headworddass
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\das\
Letters4
Frequency rank#54,518
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « dass » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).dasstombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « Dardanelles » (#54,517), « delivery » (#54,519), « dancehall » (#54,516). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dass » est au #54,518. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dass is uncommon French at frequency #54,518 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \das\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dass, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is dass, spelled D-A-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Directeur des affaires sanitaires et sociales.
  2. 2
    Sida.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ainsi à Versailles le Directeur des affaires sanitaires et sociales – le DASS – adressait au procureur une courte lettre composée de trois paragraphes dont je peux restituer l’essentiel tellement elle est originale.
  2. [elle] avisa dans la rue le directeur des affaires sanitaires & sociales de l’Yonne, lui expliqua sa situation ; celui-ci l’envoya au directeur d’un nouvel externat, qui n’osa pas refuser d’embaucher une femme envoyée par le dass & elle embaucha un mois avant ma naissance.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dass"?
"dass" is spelled D-A-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is \das\.
What does "dass" mean?
As a proper noun, "dass" means: Directeur des affaires sanitaires et sociales.
How do you pronounce "dass"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dass" is \das\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dass" come from?
"dass" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list