s.v.

\es.ve\

/\es.ve\/ prep

The verdict

“s.v.” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
4
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À l’article, à l’entrée, au mot.

Corpus desk

Index FR-s-v · s.v. · French

s.v. · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" 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.

Key facts for s.v.
PropertyValue
Headwords.v.
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPreposition
IPA\es.ve\
Letters4
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « s.v. » en français

s.v.reste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

s.v. is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition, transcribed \es.ve\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "À l’article, à l’entrée, au mot.".

s.v. doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is s.v., spelled S-.-V-..

Definition

  1. 1
    À l’article, à l’entrée, au mot.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les mots à trait d’union ne sont pas mieux traités, à en juger par le nombre de contradictions entre ouvrages différents (PR1 et GR écrivent cupro-nickel et rhinopharynx, PLI1 et LEX cupronickel et rhino-pharynx...) ou dans un même ouvrage (PR1 choisit la forme bateau-mouche s.v. « bateau », mais préfère bateau mouche s.v. « mouche »).
  2. La référence comporte dans l’ordre : facultativement, la préposition française « dans » ou la préposition latine « in » ; le titre du dictionnaire en italique, … ; la mention latine « sub verbo », abrégée en « s.v. » ; elle introduit le mot défini ; et, en italique, le mot qui fait l’objet de la définition, ….

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "s.v."?
"s.v." is spelled S-.-V-.. The IPA pronunciation is \es.ve\.
What does "s.v." mean?
As a preposition, "s.v." means: À l’article, à l’entrée, au mot.
How do you pronounce "s.v."?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "s.v." is \es.ve\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "s.v." come from?
"s.v." 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list