sanction

/\sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#6,439

in French word usage

Misspellings

12

tracked variants

Confusables

3

similar word pairs

sanction is aFrenchnoun. It means: Acte par lequel le souverain, le chef du pouvoir exécutif donne à une loi l’approbation, la confirmation qui la rend exécutoire. Pronounced \sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\. It ranks #6,439 in French word frequency. Often confused with section and sanctions.

Key facts for sanction
PropertyValue
Headwordsanction
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#6,439
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of sanction in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for sanction is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,439 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for sanction, with forms such as "asnction", "sacntion", and "sancction". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "section", "sanctions", "sanctionné", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is sanction, spelled S-A-N-C-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Acte par lequel le souverain, le chef du pouvoir exécutif donne à une loi l’approbation, la confirmation qui la rend exécutoire.
  2. 2
    Acte d'une autorité sur une situation légale.
  3. 3
    Approbation que l’on donne à une chose.
  4. 4
    Peine ou récompense prévues pour assurer l’exécution d’une loi.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: asnction,sacntion,sancction,sanciton,sanctino,sanctionn,sanctoin,sancttion,sannction,santcion,snaction,ssanction

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for sanction

Misspelling Variants of "sanction"

asnction8sacntion8sancction9sanciton8sanctino8sanctionn9sanctoin8sancttion9
Misspelling Variants of "sanction"

Frequency rank: #6,439 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sanction"?
"sanction" is spelled S-A-N-C-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\.
What does "sanction" mean?
As a noun, "sanction" means: Acte par lequel le souverain, le chef du pouvoir exécutif donne à une loi l’approbation, la confirmation qui la rend exécutoire.
What words are commonly confused with "sanction"?
"sanction" is commonly confused with "section", "sanctions", "sanctionné". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sanction"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sanction" is \sɑ̃k.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sanction" come from?
"sanction" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.