esse

/\ɛs\/ noun

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#53,938

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

esse is aFrenchnoun. It means: Lettre latine S, s. Pronounced \ɛs\.

Key facts for esse
PropertyValue
Headwordesse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛs\
Letters4
Frequency rank#53,938
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for esse is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɛs\. Corpus data places it at rank #53,938 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for esse in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 esse, spelled E-S-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lettre latine S, s.
  2. 2
    Instrument en forme de S.
  3. 3
    Conduite en forme de S, permettant d’assurer la mise hors-gel.
  4. 4
    Cheville de fer tordue, faite à peu près en forme d’S, qu’on met au bout de l’essieu d’une voiture, pour empêcher que la roue n’en sorte.
  5. 5
    Crochet auquel sont suspendus les plateaux au fléau d’une balance.
  6. 6
    Crochet aux extrémités effilées servant à suspendre des quartiers de viande.
  7. 7
    Crochet qui sert à élever les pierres pour la construction d’un édifice.
  8. 8
    Chacune des ouïes de la table d’harmonie des instruments de la famille du violon.
  9. 9
    Lame de métal percée de trous de différents diamètres, destinée à tester le calibre des fils de fer. → voir esser

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #53,938 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "esse"?
"esse" is spelled E-S-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛs\.
What does "esse" mean?
As a noun, "esse" means: Lettre latine S, s.
How do you pronounce "esse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "esse" is \ɛs\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "esse" come from?
"esse" 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. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.