sous la main
\su la mɛ̃\
The verdict
“sous la main” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Proche ; à portée.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sous-la-main · sous la main · French
sous la main · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sous la main |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \su la mɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sous la main » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sous la main is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \su la mɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sous la main, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is sous la main, spelled S-O-U-S- -L-A- -M-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Proche ; à portée.
- 2Sous l’autorité ; sous la dépendance.
- 3Se dit d’un cheval de voiture attelé, ou accoutumé de l’être, sous la main droite du cocher.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sous la main appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je n’ai pas ce papier sous la main, je le chercherai.
Ce livre m’est tombé sous la main.
Antonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.