precipitous

/pɹɪˈsɪpɪtəs/adjective

precipitous is spelled P-R-E-C-I-P-I-T-O-U-S: 11 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, precipitous means “Steep, like a precipice” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in precipitous?

Letters	11: P-R-E-C-I-P-I-T-O-U-S
Syllables	4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	about once in every 3 million words; the 48,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

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).

How common is precipitous?

Precipitous appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form in the list.

precipitous0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce precipitous?

/pɹɪˈsɪpɪtəs/

Precipitous has 4 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-us-precipitous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does precipitous mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Steep, like a precipice
a precipitous cliff
2
Headlong
a precipitous fall
3
Hasty; rash; quick; sudden
precipitous attempts

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Precipitous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	abrupt, escarpé, raide (steep, like a precipice), précipité (hasty; rash; quick; sudden; precipitate)
German	abrupt, abschüssig, jäh, schroff, steil, steilwandig (steep, like a precipice)
Spanish	escarpado, precipitoso (steep, like a precipice), de cabeza (headlong)

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 precipitous come from?

From obsolete French précipiteux, from Vulgar Latin *praecipitōsus, from praeceps, praecipit- (“ precipice”) + -ōsus (“-ful, -ous”), from prae- (“before”) + caput (“head”). Equivalent to precipice (“steep cliff, brink”) + -ous.