substance

\syp.stɑ̃s\

/\syp.stɑ̃s\/ noun

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

The verdict

“substance” has 14 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,706. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,706
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ce qui subsiste par soi-même, indépendamment de tout accident.

Corpus desk

Index FR-substance · substance · French

substance · rank #5,706 · 14 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,706
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH Soviétique

Nearest frequency peer: Soviétique (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « substance »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « substance » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

substance vs substances
90% similar
substance vs subsistance
82% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for substance
PropertyValue
Headwordsubstance
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\syp.stɑ̃s\
Letters9
Frequency rank#5,706
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « substance »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).substancese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Soviétique » (#5,705), « situés » (#5,704), « Taylor » (#5,708). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « substance » est au #5,706. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around substance (IPA \syp.stɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,706 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for substance, with forms such as "sbustance", "ssubstance", and "subbstance". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "substances", "subsistance", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is substance, spelled S-U-B-S-T-A-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ce qui subsiste par soi-même, indépendamment de tout accident.
  2. 2
    Toute sorte de matière.
  3. 3
    Ce qu’il y a de meilleur, de plus succulent, de plus nourrissant en quelque chose.
  4. 4
    Ce qu’il y a d’essentiel dans un discours, dans un écrit, dans une affaire, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je lui apprendrai, dit le docteur, les huit parties d’oraison, la dialectique, l’astrologie, la démonomanie, ce que c’est que la substance et l’accident, l’abstrait et le concret, les monades et l’harmonie préétablie.
  2. Descartes a donné trois démonstrations de l’existence de Dieu. nᵒ 1 J’ai en moi l’idée de Dieu. Par le nom de Dieu, j’entends une substance infinie, éternelle, immuable, indépendante, toute-connaissante et toute-puissante.

This word in other languages

substance(English)substancia(Español)Substanz(Deutsch)substância(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • sbustance
  • ssubstance
  • subbstance
  • subsatnce
  • subsstance
  • substacne
  • substancce
  • substanec
  • substannce
  • substnace
  • substtance
  • subtsance
  • susbtance
  • usbstance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of substance - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

sbustance2ssubstance1subbstance1subsatnce2subsstance1substacne2substancce1substanec2
Edit distance from "substance"

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 "substance"?
"substance" is spelled S-U-B-S-T-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \syp.stɑ̃s\.
What does "substance" mean?
As a noun, "substance" means: Ce qui subsiste par soi-même, indépendamment de tout accident.
What words are commonly confused with "substance"?
"substance" is commonly confused with "substances", "subsistance". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "substance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "substance" is \syp.stɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "substance" come from?
"substance" 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 "substance", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

prochains#5,694électoral#5,719offensive#5,684Brésilien#5,734

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

Soviétique14 variantsrapprocher14 variantsoccidentaux14 variantsdestinées14 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list