PS

symbol

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“PS” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,340) as a symbol. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,340
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Signe distinctif en trafic international des véhicules automobiles immatriculés à Perlis, prescrit dans le cadre de la Convention sur la circulation routière de Genève de 1949 et de la Convention s...

Corpus desk

Index FR-ps · PS · French

PS · rank #1,340 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,340
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH province

Nearest frequency peer: province (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “PS”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “PS” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

PS vs pu
0% similar
PS vs PV
50% similar
PS vs Pt
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for PS
PropertyValue
HeadwordPS
LanguageFrench
Part of speechSymbol
Letters2
Frequency rank#1,340
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “PS” se place dans la fréquence du français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.PSse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « province » (#1,339), « rentrer » (#1,341), « prince » (#1,338). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for PS is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PV", …), not just typos; it is asymbol. Frequency #1,340 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for PS, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PV", "Pt", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is PS, spelled P-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Signe distinctif en trafic international des véhicules automobiles immatriculés à Perlis, prescrit dans le cadre de la Convention sur la circulation routière de Genève de 1949 et de la Convention sur la signalisation routière de Vienne de 1968. Perlis se fondra dans la Malaisie en 1957.
  2. 2
    Symbole du pétasiemens, unité de mesure de conductance électrique du Système international (SI), valant 10¹⁵ siemens.
  3. 3
    Polystyrène.
  4. 4
    Code ISO 3166-1 (alpha-2) de la Palestine (Territoires palestiniens occupés).
  5. 5
    Code FIPS PUB 10-4 des Palaos (Belau).
  6. 6
    Palestine (Territoires palestiniens occupés).
  7. 7
    Ukraine International Airlines.
  8. 8
    Mention placée sous un pictogramme représenté par un triangle pointe en haut composé de trois flèches entourant le chiffre 6 et indiquant que l’emballage ou le produit contient du polystyrène.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how PS appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le marquage PS est pratique pour trier les plastiques qui peuvent être remis à une filière de recyclage. Il est apposé volontairement par le fabricant dans le cadre de la réglementation fixée par la décision 97/129/CE de la Commission Européenne.

Synonyms

PLEPSE

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

How do you spell "PS"?
"PS" is spelled P-S.
What does "PS" mean?
As a symbol, "PS" means: Signe distinctif en trafic international des véhicules automobiles immatriculés à Perlis, prescrit dans le cadre de la Convention sur la circulation routière de Genève de 1949 et de la Convention s...
What words are commonly confused with "PS"?
"PS" is commonly confused with "pu", "PV", "Pt". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "PS" come from?
"PS" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

What to do next

You've looked up "PS". Here's where to go from here.

  • "PS" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "pu". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #1,340 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list