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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sans.

Without; lacking; especially with regard to something expected or with precedent.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

prep/sænz/UK, US/sɑ̃/UK, US
  1. Without; lacking; especially with regard to something expected or with precedent.

    defective · humorous · literary · often
Where this word comes from

From Middle English saunz, sans, borrowed from Old French sans, senz, sens, from Latin sine (“without”) conflated with absēns (“absent, remote”). Compare French sans, Italian senza, Portuguese sem, and Spanish sin.

adj/sænz/UK, US/sɑ̃/UK, US
  1. Ellipsis of sans serif.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English saunz, sans, borrowed from Old French sans, senz, sens, from Latin sine (“without”) conflated with absēns (“absent, remote”). Compare French sans, Italian senza, Portuguese sem, and Spanish sin.

noun
  1. plural of san

    form-of · plural
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.