salesmanship

noun

"salesmanship" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“salesmanship” is uncommon English (frequency #76,294 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#76,294
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The skills and knowledge of how to sell.

Corpus desk

Index EN-salesmanship · salesmanship · English

salesmanship · rank #76,294 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #76,294
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Salish

Nearest frequency peer: Salish (+1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “salesmanship”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “salesmanship” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for salesmanship
PropertyValue
Headwordsalesmanship
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Frequency rank#76,294
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “salesmanship” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).salesmanshipfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Salish” (#76,295), “sadhana” (#76,292), “Saakashvili” (#76,289). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “salesmanship” is #76,294. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

salesmanship is uncommon English at frequency #76,294 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for salesmanship in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From salesman + -ship. The correct English form is salesmanship, spelled S-A-L-E-S-M-A-N-S-H-I-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    The skills and knowledge of how to sell.
  2. 2
    A position as salesman.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how salesmanship appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The professional dealer's salesmanship was incredible, I was just looking but he managed to convince me to buy three times what I was considering buying over the next six months.
  2. […] this man worked at his business all the harder, with the brightness of the home-joys fading. But it went very hard with him, more than once, when he made a good stroke of salesmanship, to have to put the money in the bottom of his pocket, without even rubbing a bright half-crown, and saying to himself, “I have a’most a mind to give this to Mary.”

Etymology

From salesman + -ship.

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

How do you spell "salesmanship"?
"salesmanship" is spelled S-A-L-E-S-M-A-N-S-H-I-P.
What does "salesmanship" mean?
As a noun, "salesmanship" means: The skills and knowledge of how to sell.
What is the origin of the word "salesmanship"?
From salesman + -ship. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "salesmanship", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list