tss

\t͡s\

/\t͡s\/ intj

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

The verdict

“tss” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #41,048) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#41,048
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bruit d’agacement ou de désapprobation produit à l’aide d’un clic dental, transcrite /ǀ/ en API, aussi écrit tsk.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tss · tss · French

tss · rank #41,048 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #41,048
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH trench

Nearest frequency peer: trench (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « tss »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « tss » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

tss vs tu
33% similar
tss vs TV
0% similar
tss vs ty
33% similar

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

Key facts for tss
PropertyValue
Headwordtss
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\t͡s\
Letters3
Frequency rank#41,048
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « tss »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « trench » (#41,047), « tremblait » (#41,046), « Tudor » (#41,050). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tss » est au #41,048. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for tss is neighbouring look-alikes ("tu", "TV", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced \t͡s\. Frequency #41,048 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Gloss: "Bruit d’agacement ou de désapprobation produit à l’aide d’un clic dental, transcrite /ǀ/ en API, aussi écrit tsk.".

Zero misspellings are on record for tss in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tu", "TV", "ty", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

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 tss, spelled T-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bruit d’agacement ou de désapprobation produit à l’aide d’un clic dental, transcrite /ǀ/ en API, aussi écrit tsk.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. – Mon ami, la prochaine fois, vous me ferez le plaisir de passer par la porte de la valetaille. – Passer par la porte de la volaille ? Monsieur le comte veut rire ? – Tss ! Tss ! Tss ! Ne faites pas le farceur. Je dis : la porte de service. – Je passe par la première porte que je trouve ouverte, Monsieur le comte. Je n’ai pas le temps de chercher les autres.
  2. À neuf ans, v’là aut’ chose. Le docteur Ricci, que maman m’avait mené voir à propos de je ne sais quel bobo, m’attrape la quéquette entre deux doigts et tire la peau en arrière, quelle idée ! Il faisait « Tss, tss », l’air pas content, et forçait de plus en plus sur la peau.

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 "tss"?
"tss" is spelled T-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is \t͡s\.
What does "tss" mean?
As an interjection, "tss" means: Bruit d’agacement ou de désapprobation produit à l’aide d’un clic dental, transcrite /ǀ/ en API, aussi écrit tsk.
What words are commonly confused with "tss"?
"tss" is commonly confused with "tu", "TV", "ty". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tss"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tss" is \t͡s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tss" come from?
"tss" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "tss", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ULB#41,052SSH#41,017anh#41,117PTT#40,940

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list