sans
French, preposition/sɑ̃/
sans is spelled S-A-N-S (4 letters) and appears 1,259 times per million words in written French, the 83rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Sans is a French preposition meaning “without (not having)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Préposition marquant l’absence, le manque, l’exclusion d’une personne, d’une chose. – Note d’usage : On…”.
What does sans mean in English?
preposition
- 1
without (not having)
Je ne veux pas partir sans toi.
- 2
without (not doing or having done)
Elle est partie sans parler à personne.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
preposition: 1. Préposition marquant l’absence, le manque, l’exclusion d’une personne, d’une chose. – Note d’usage : On n’utilise généralement pas d’article indéfini ou partitif. Peut s’accentuer avec aucun. 2. Elle se place aussi devant un infinitif pour marquer l’absence, le manque d’une manière d’être ou d’agir.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce sans?
- /sɑ̃/
- /sɑ̃.z‿/
- \sɑ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to sans
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is sans in French?
sans appears 1,259 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).