sabre
\sɑbʁ\
The verdict
“sabre” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #9,739 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,739
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Arme blanche dont la lame, longue et à un seul tranchant, est droite ou présente une courbure plus ou moins convexe du côté du tranchant.
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 | sabre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sɑbʁ\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,739 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sabre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sabre is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɑbʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,739 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. 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 sabre, with forms such as "asbre", "sabbre", and "sabrre". 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, "sage", "sure", "sara", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is sabre, spelled S-A-B-R-E.
Definition
- 1Arme blanche dont la lame, longue et à un seul tranchant, est droite ou présente une courbure plus ou moins convexe du côté du tranchant.
- 2Symbole de la force des armes, du militarisme.
- 3Rasoir à manche et à longue lame.
- 4Grand poisson osseux marin prédateur très allongés et minces, de la famille des trichiuridés.
- 5Meuble représentant l’arme du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle diffère de l’épée par sa lame à simple tranchant courbe et sa garde reliée à l’extrémité inférieure de la poignée pour protéger les doigts. À rapprocher de badelaire, coutelas, couteau, cimeterre, épée, kriss et rapière.
- 6Outil de poing constitué d'un manche et d'une longue lame non coupante que l'on utilise pour découper le papier à tapisser. Le papier est disposé sur une table à tapisser le long de laquelle se trouve une règle de métal, le papier se coupe en le coinçant entre la règle et la lame du couteau à la manière d'une paire de ciseaux. Couteau de tapissier.
- 7Sabre à canne.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asbre,sabbre,sabrre,sarbe,sbare,ssabre
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sabre - 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
How do you spell "sabre"?
What does "sabre" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sabre"?
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Using “sabre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-A-B-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɑbʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sage” - see the side-by-side comparison. sabre vs sage
- 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.