sai
\ˈsaɪ\
The verdict
“sai” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #26,527 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #26,527
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Saï (arme japonaise).
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 | sai |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ˈsaɪ\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #26,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sai” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sai is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈsaɪ\. Corpus data places it at rank #26,527 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Saï (arme japonaise).".
sai doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "se", "si", "st", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sai, spelled S-A-I.
Definition
- 1Saï (arme japonaise).
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 "sai"?
What does "sai" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sai"?
How do you pronounce "sai"?
What language does "sai" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sai”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-A-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈsaɪ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “se” - see the side-by-side comparison. sai vs se
- 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.