Sans-serif

Also called: sans, sans-serif font, grotesque, geometric sans.

A font whose letters have no little "feet" at the ends of their strokes (sans means "without" in French). It feels clean, modern and easy to read on screens.

Sans-serif letters have no little “feet” at the ends of their strokes. Compare with a serif font.

Sans

Say it in a prompt

Use a clean sans-serif font for the whole interface (Inter, with system-ui as the fallback): 16px body text at 1.5 line height, and semibold 600 for headings and buttons.

Seen on

The New York Times: Labels and small text use NYT Franklin, a sans-serif, next to serif headlines.
Squarespace Foundations: All text on the brand site uses one sans-serif font, "Clarkson".

You might describe it as

clean modern font without the little feet
simple plain letters like on apps
font like on a phone screen

Not to be confused with

Serif
Sans-serif letters end in plain, clean strokes; serif letters have small feet at the ends.