cantaloupe
/ˈkæn.tə.loʊp/noun
cantaloupe is spelled C-A-N-T-A-L-O-U-P-E. The wrong spelling people search most is cantalope: about 990 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 13 of all searches for the word. Cantaloupe is a noun meaning “Cantalupensis Group sensu stricto, with non- or slightly netted rind, also known as true cantaloupe or…”. The plural of cantaloupe is cantaloupes.
How many letters and syllables are in cantaloupe?
| Letters | 10: C-A-N-T-A-L-O-U-P-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 51,129th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, cantalope, about 990 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell cantaloupe?
Cantaloupe is spelled C-A-N-T-A-L-O-U-P-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 13 of the searches for cantaloupe in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is cantaloupe?
Cantaloupe appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,129th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cantaloupe?
- UK /ˈkæn.tə.luːp/
- US /ˈkæn.tə.loʊp/
Cantaloupe has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: EN-AU_ck1_cantaloupe.ogg, En-us-cantaloupe.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-cantelope.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cantaloupe
- cantaloupes plural
- cantaloup
- canteloupe
- cantelope
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cantaloupe mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
IrelandUKCantalupensis Group sensu stricto, with non- or slightly netted rind, also known as true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe, found in the Middle East and Europe.
- 2
AustraliaCanadaUSReticulatus Group (now merged into Cantalupensis Group), with strongly netted rind, also known as American cantaloupe, muskmelon or rockmelon.
- 3
An orange colour, like that of cantaloupe flesh.
- 4
slangA woman's breasts, particularly large breasts.
Distracted by the way that the sudden gust of wind exposed the girl's bare thighs, he tripped on the uneven sidewalk and faceplanted straight into her soft cantaloupes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cantaloupe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense melon:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cantaloup |
| German | Cantaloupe-Melone |
| Portuguese | meloa, cantalupo |
| Spanish | cantalupo, cantaloup |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cantaloupe come from?
From French cantaloup, from Italian Cantalupo (a place name), from Italian canto + lupo, literally "howl of the wolf". Named after Cantalupo in Sabina, a former Papal summer estate near Rome, where the melons were first grown after being introduced to Europe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).