sans
\sɑ̃\
The verdict
“sans” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #80. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #80
- frequency rank, French
- 6,032
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sans · sans · French
sans · rank #80 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #80
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,032
- PHOTO-FINISH tous
Nearest frequency peer: tous (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sans”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- suis
suis
99,924 corpus weight
- très
très
99,923 corpus weight
- tous
tous
99,922 corpus weight
- sans
sans
99,921 corpus weight
- avoir
avoir
99,920 corpus weight
- non
non
99,919 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sans” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | sans |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | \sɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #80 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sans” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around sans (IPA \sɑ̃\), apreposition. Corpus frequency is #80 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sans, with forms such as "asns", "sanns", and "sanss". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ss", "sn", "son", and more, 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 its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is sans, spelled S-A-N-S.
Definition
- 1Préposition 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.
- 2Elle se place aussi devant un infinitif pour marquer l’absence, le manque d’une manière d’être ou d’agir.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sans appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Nous reçûmes l'ordre de côtoyer en le remontant le ruisseau de la Tourbe, qui arrose la plus triste vallée du monde, entre des collines basses, sans arbres et sans buissons.
La nuit n'était pas brouillardeuse, mais terne, humide sans pluie, froide sans frimas, une vraie nuit française de janvier.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- asns
- sanns
- sanss
- sasn
- snas
- ssans
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sans - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sans"?
What does "sans" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sans"?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sans", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "sans". Here's where to go from here.
- "sans" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ss". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #80 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.