gens
\ʒɑ̃\
The verdict
“gens” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #130 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #130
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Personnes en nombre indéterminé.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gens |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʒɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #130 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gens” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for gens is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʒɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #130 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for gens, with forms such as "egns", "genns", and "genss". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Gs", "GN", "GPS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is gens, spelled G-E-N-S.
Definition
- 1Personnes en nombre indéterminé.
- 2Population, dans un ensemble indistinct, sans relief.
- 3Tous ceux qui sont d’un état, d’une profession quelconque.
- 4Ceux qui sont d’un parti, par opposition à ceux de l’autre.
- 5Personnes qui sont d’une même partie de jeu, de festin, etc.
- 6Domestiques.
- 7Les parents, père et mère.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: egns,genns,genss,gesn,ggens,gnes
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gens - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Using “gens”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-E-N-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʒɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Gs” - see the side-by-side comparison. gens vs Gs
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.