saltpetre
/ˈsɔːltpiːtə(ɹ)/
"saltpetre" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“saltpetre” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Potassium nitrate.
Corpus desk
Index EN-saltpetre · saltpetre · English
saltpetre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 | saltpetre |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɔːltpiːtə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “saltpetre” in English
Rare enough to double-check
saltpetre is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɔːltpiːtə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for saltpetre, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English saltpetre, alteration of Old French salpetre, from Medieval Latin sāl petrae (“salt of the rock”), named so being found as an incrustation. Alteration of the first element is from folk-etymological association with salt (which is, nevert… The correct English form is saltpetre, spelled S-A-L-T-P-E-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1Potassium nitrate.
- 2Sodium nitrate.
Etymology
From Middle English saltpetre, alteration of Old French salpetre, from Medieval Latin sāl petrae (“salt of the rock”), named so being found as an incrustation. Alteration of the first element is from folk-etymological association with salt (which is, nevertheless, cognate to Latin sāl).
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.