Salonica

name

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"salonica" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Salonica” is uncommon English (frequency #98,678 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#98,678
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of Thessaloniki: a port city, the capital of Central Macedonia, in northern Greece.

Corpus desk

Index EN-salonica · Salonica · English

Salonica · rank #98,678 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #98,678
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Salameh

Nearest frequency peer: Salameh (-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 “Salonica”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Salonica
PropertyValue
HeadwordSalonica
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters8
Frequency rank#98,678
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Salonica” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).Salonicafalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Salameh” (#98,677), “Sajjad” (#98,676), “Sagal” (#98,675). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “Salonica” is #98,678. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Salonica is uncommon English at frequency #98,678 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of Thessaloniki: a port city, the capital of Central Macedonia, in northern Greece.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Salonica, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Medieval Latin Salonica, from Byzantine Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníkē), clipping of Ancient Greek Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē), named for Thessalonike daughter of Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Cassander of Macedonia, from Θεσσᾰλός… The correct English form is Salonica, spelled S-A-L-O-N-I-C-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Synonym of Thessaloniki: a port city, the capital of Central Macedonia, in northern Greece.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Sleeping-car passengers, however, will know little of their entry into Greece until, at 6 a.m. on the third morning after leaving Paris, the short train runs over the Vardar plain, with dawn glimpses of Mount Athos to the east and of cloud-capped Olympus across the gulf to the south, past the rebuilt yard and into the new passenger station at Salonica.

Etymology

From Medieval Latin Salonica, from Byzantine Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníkē), clipping of Ancient Greek Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē), named for Thessalonike daughter of Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Cassander of Macedonia, from Θεσσᾰλός (Thessălós, “Thessalian”) + νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”), possibly named for her birth on the anniversary of the Battle of Crocus Field. Sometimes parsed as a clipping within English of Thessalonica. Originally and still chiefly as a calque of Ottoman Turkish سلانیك (Selânik); now with occasional reference to modern Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníki).

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 "Salonica"?
"Salonica" is spelled S-A-L-O-N-I-C-A.
What does "Salonica" mean?
As a proper noun, "Salonica" means: Synonym of Thessaloniki: a port city, the capital of Central Macedonia, in northern Greece.
What is the origin of the word "Salonica"?
From Medieval Latin Salonica, from Byzantine Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníkē), clipping of Ancient Greek Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē), named for Thessalonike daughter of Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Cassander of Macedonia, fro... 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 "Salonica", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Schwerin#98,689sexology#98,705sideband#98,714reburial#98,635

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list