ignorance of the law is no excuse
\nyl n‿ɛ sɑ̃.se i.ɲɔ.ʁe la lwa\
The verdict
“ignorance of the law is no excuse” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 33
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — Nul n’est censé ignorer la loi.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ignorance of the law is no excuse |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | \nyl n‿ɛ sɑ̃.se i.ɲɔ.ʁe la lwa\ |
| Letters | 33 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ignorance of the law is no excuse” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ignorance of the law is no excuse is 33 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nyl n‿ɛ sɑ̃.se i.ɲɔ.ʁe la lwa\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Nul n’est censé ignorer la loi.".
No misspelling variants are generated for ignorance of the law is no excuse in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. 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 ignorance of the law is no excuse, spelled I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E- -O-F- -T-H-E- -L-A-W- -I-S- -N-O- -E-X-C-U-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Nul n’est censé ignorer la loi.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “ignorance of the law is no excuse, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/ignorance-of-the-law-is-no-excuse
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ignorance of the law is no excuse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E- -O-F- -T-H-E- -L-A-W- -I-S- -N-O- -E-X-C-U-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \nyl n‿ɛ sɑ̃.se i.ɲɔ.ʁe la lwa\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Nearby French words
Other entries that begin with the letter I in our French index: