Sappho

\sa.fo\

/\sa.fo\/ name

The verdict

“Sappho” is uncommon French (frequency #92,164 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,164
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Poétesse grecque de l’Antiquité qui a vécu aux VIIᵉ et VIᵉ siècle av. J.-C., à Mytilène sur l’île de Lesbos.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sappho · Sappho · French

Sappho · rank #92,164 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,164
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH santer

Nearest frequency peer: santer (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « Sappho »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « Sappho » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Sappho
PropertyValue
HeadwordSappho
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\sa.fo\
Letters6
Frequency rank#92,164
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Sappho » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).Sapphotombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « santer » (#92,163), « Sarazin » (#92,165), « sanga » (#92,162). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « Sappho » est au #92,164. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Sappho is uncommon French at frequency #92,164 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \sa.fo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Poétesse grecque de l’Antiquité qui a vécu aux VIIᵉ et VIᵉ siècle av. J.-C., à Mytilène sur l’île de Lesbos.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for Sappho in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

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 Sappho, spelled S-A-P-P-H-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Poétesse grecque de l’Antiquité qui a vécu aux VIIᵉ et VIᵉ siècle av. J.-C., à Mytilène sur l’île de Lesbos.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Sappho appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. C'est comme étant noble, sans aucun doute, que Sappho fut envoyée en exil, par un sort analogue à celui du poète Alcée.
  2. C’est à Lesbos que naquit et vécut la célèbre poétesse Sappho, qui pratiqua l’amour féminin de façon si éclatante et le célébra avec tant de beaux vers que son nom est devenu synonyme de passion lesbienne.

This word in other languages

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 "Sappho"?
"Sappho" is spelled S-A-P-P-H-O. The IPA pronunciation is \sa.fo\.
What does "Sappho" mean?
As a proper noun, "Sappho" means: Poétesse grecque de l’Antiquité qui a vécu aux VIIᵉ et VIᵉ siècle av. J.-C., à Mytilène sur l’île de Lesbos.
How do you pronounce "Sappho"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Sappho" is \sa.fo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Sappho" come from?
"Sappho" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Sappho", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list