escalade
/ˌɛskəˈleɪd/
"escalade" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“escalade” is uncommon English (frequency #52,300 among 18,836 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,300
- frequency rank, English
- 18,836
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An act of scaling walls or fortifications.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | escalade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌɛskəˈleɪd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #52,300 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “escalade” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
escalade is uncommon English at frequency #52,300 among 18,836 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌɛskəˈleɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An act of scaling walls or fortifications.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for escalade, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French escalade, from Italian scalata, from scalare (“to climb”), from scala (“ladder”), from Latin scālae (“ladder”). Doublet of scalade. The correct English form is escalade, spelled E-S-C-A-L-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1An act of scaling walls or fortifications.
Etymology
Borrowed from French escalade, from Italian scalata, from scalare (“to climb”), from scala (“ladder”), from Latin scālae (“ladder”). Doublet of scalade.
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “escalade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-S-C-A-L-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌɛskəˈleɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.