cicisbeo
/ˌtʃɪtʃɪzˈbeɪəʊ/
"cicisbeo" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cicisbeo” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cicisbeo · cicisbeo · English
cicisbeo · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cicisbeo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌtʃɪtʃɪzˈbeɪəʊ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cicisbeo” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cicisbeo is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌtʃɪtʃɪzˈbeɪəʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cicisbeo, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian cicisbeo, of onomatopoeic origin. The correct English form is cicisbeo, spelled C-I-C-I-S-B-E-O.
Definition
- 1A man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cicisbeo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My old Cicisbee says it would do: & he is (or was poor fellow!) a famous Scholar.
The office of Cicisbeo is however an intolerably expensive one; especially to our countrymen.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian cicisbeo, of onomatopoeic origin.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.