sustentation

\sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\

/\sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“sustentation” is uncommon French (frequency #80,688 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,688
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de soutenir les forces, de nourrir, d’entretenir la vie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sustentation · sustentation · French

sustentation · rank #80,688 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,688
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH surimpression

Nearest frequency peer: surimpression (-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 « sustentation »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sustentation
PropertyValue
Headwordsustentation
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\
Letters12
Frequency rank#80,688
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « sustentation » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).sustentationtombe 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: « surimpression » (#80,687), « surannée » (#80,686), « suppositoire » (#80,685). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sustentation » est au #80,688. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sustentation is uncommon French at frequency #80,688 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for sustentation in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is sustentation, spelled S-U-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de soutenir les forces, de nourrir, d’entretenir la vie.
  2. 2
    Action de soutenir un grave.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’est tout ce qu’on lui permet de prendre pour sa sustentation.
  2. La vitesse pouvant seule nous assurer une sustentation normale pendant les toutes premières minutes de vol, je laissai le plus souvent le Point-d'Interrogation foncer suivant une ligne à peu près horizontale.

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 "sustentation"?
"sustentation" is spelled S-U-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\.
What does "sustentation" mean?
As a noun, "sustentation" means: Action de soutenir les forces, de nourrir, d’entretenir la vie.
How do you pronounce "sustentation"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sustentation" is \sys.tɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sustentation" come from?
"sustentation" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "sustentation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

suppositoire#80,685structurales#80,676Tcheliabinsk#80,705tendancielle#80,707

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list