essai

/\e.sɛ\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#2,277

in French word usage

Misspellings

4

tracked variants

Confusables

17

similar word pairs

essai is aFrenchnoun. It means: Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc. Pronounced \e.sɛ\. It ranks #2,277 in French word frequency. Often confused with esta and étai.

Key facts for essai
PropertyValue
Headwordessai
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.sɛ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#2,277
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for essai is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.sɛ\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,277 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for essai, with forms such as "esai", "esasi", and "essia". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "esta", "étai", "essor", 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 essai, spelled E-S-S-A-I, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc.
  2. 2
    Opération par laquelle on s’assure de la pureté d’un métal ou de la nature de celui qui est contenu dans une mine.
  3. 3
    Tentative.
  4. 4
    Premières productions de l’esprit ou de l’art qui se font sur quelque sujet, sur quelque matière, pour voir si l’on y réussira.
  5. 5
    Ouvrage littéraire explorant un domaine donné selon le point de vue de l’auteur. Il est intitulé ainsi, soit par modestie, soit parce que l’auteur ne se propose pas d’approfondir la matière de son traité.
  6. 6
    Points marqués (cinq points) par une équipe de rugby lorsqu’un de ses joueurs plaque le ballon au sol dans l’enbut adverse et permettant d'essayer une transformation (deux points supplémentaires).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: esai,esasi,essia,sesai

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for essai

Misspelling Variants of "essai"

esai4esasi5essia5sesai5
Misspelling Variants of "essai"

Frequency rank: #2,277 in French

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: Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "essai"?
"essai" is commonly confused with "esta", "étai", "essor". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
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 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 E in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

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.