savate

\sa.vat\

/\sa.vat\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“savate” is uncommon French (frequency #61,881 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,881
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vieille pantoufle, vieux soulier très usé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-savate · savate · French

savate · rank #61,881 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,881
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH satané

Nearest frequency peer: satané (-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 « savate »

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 « savate » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for savate
PropertyValue
Headwordsavate
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sa.vat\
Letters6
Frequency rank#61,881
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « savate » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.savatetombe 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: « satané » (#61,880), « Schilling » (#61,882), « Sarrebruck » (#61,879). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « savate » est au #61,881. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

savate is uncommon French at frequency #61,881 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \sa.vat\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

savate doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is savate, spelled S-A-V-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Vieille pantoufle, vieux soulier très usé.
  2. 2
    Sport de combat où le pied joue le principal rôle.
  3. 3
    Réglisse en gros bâton.
  4. 4
    Tongs, dites savates deux doigts.
  5. 5
    Pièce de bois solidaire au navire, que l'on place en dessous pour permettre de glisser lors de la mise à l'eau.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le nom de famille de ce fonctionnaire était Savatkine. Déjà au nom on voit qu’il a été formé, jadis, d’une savate ; mais quand, à quelle époque et de quelle façon est-il venu, de cette savate, cela, personne n’en savait rien.
  2. Elle avait les pieds nus dans des savates et Émilienne remarqua que ces pieds étaient sales, comme la maison où tout était en désordre.

Synonyms

chaussongodassepantoufletataneboxe française

This word in other languages

savate(English)savate(Español)

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 "savate"?
"savate" is spelled S-A-V-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sa.vat\.
What does "savate" mean?
As a noun, "savate" means: Vieille pantoufle, vieux soulier très usé.
How do you pronounce "savate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "savate" is \sa.vat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "savate" come from?
"savate" 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 "savate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

satané#61,880semées#61,888rétros#61,872shoots#61,892

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list