saltimbanque
"saltimbanque" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“saltimbanque” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tumbler, street acrobat.
Corpus desk
Index EN-saltimbanque · saltimbanque · English
saltimbanque · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | saltimbanque |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “saltimbanque” in English
Rare enough to double-check
saltimbanque is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tumbler, street acrobat.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for saltimbanque in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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 French saltimbanque, from Italian saltimbanco, from saltare (“to jump”) + banco (“bench, platform, stage”). The correct English form is saltimbanque, spelled S-A-L-T-I-M-B-A-N-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Tumbler, street acrobat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how saltimbanque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Circus is a simple, romantic ballet, set to some suitable music by France’s Jacques Ibert, laid in a village square of placardized baroque, and dressed in costumes that suggest the saltimbanques of Picasso.
1960, Henry Miller, Nexus, Obelisk Press, Chapter 13, Another day my hands might wander over the keys with the felicity of a Borgia’s murderous paw. Choosing the staccato technique, I would ape the quibblers and quipsters of the Ghibellines. Or put it on, like a saltimbanque performing for a feeble-minded monarch.
Etymology
From French saltimbanque, from Italian saltimbanco, from saltare (“to jump”) + banco (“bench, platform, stage”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.