Oncle Sam
\ɔ̃k.lə sam\
The verdict
“Oncle Sam” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Personnage emblématique des États-Unis d’Amérique.
Corpus desk
Index FR-oncle-sam · Oncle Sam · French
Oncle Sam · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Oncle Sam |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \ɔ̃k.lə sam\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « Oncle Sam » en français
Rare enough to double-check
Oncle Sam is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \ɔ̃k.lə sam\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Oncle Sam, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is Oncle Sam, spelled O-N-C-L-E- -S-A-M.
Definition
- 1Personnage emblématique des États-Unis d’Amérique.
- 2les États-Unis d’Amérique eux-mêmes.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Oncle Sam appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il avait été enrôlé en 68, à vingt ans, dans les forces de l’Oncle Sam pour aller combattre les diables rouges dans un coin du monde dont il ne soupçonnait pas même l'existence.
Tant de pays espèrent que nous soyons, comme ce fut le cas dans le conflit irakien, un modérateur humaniste face aux emportements meurtriers de l’Oncle Sam.
This word in other languages
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.