saboteur
/ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)/
"saboteur" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“saboteur” is uncommon English (frequency #59,686 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,686
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who intentionally causes the destruction of property in order to hinder the efforts of their enemy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | saboteur |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #59,686 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “saboteur” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
saboteur is uncommon English at frequency #59,686 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person who intentionally causes the destruction of property in order to hinder the efforts of their enemy.".
saboteur has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French saboteur. The correct English form is saboteur, spelled S-A-B-O-T-E-U-R.
Definition
- 1A person who intentionally causes the destruction of property in order to hinder the efforts of their enemy.
Etymology
Borrowed from French saboteur.
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); 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 “saboteur”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-B-O-T-E-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌsæbəˈtɜː(ɹ)/ (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.