solidus
/ˈsɑlɪdəs/noun
solidus is spelled S-O-L-I-D-U-S: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, solidus means “A Roman ~23k gold coin introduced by Diocletian in AD 301 and called by that name, but reissued at a slightly lower weight by Constantine I” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of solidus is solidi or soliduses.
How many letters and syllables are in solidus?
| Letters | 7: S-O-L-I-D-U-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 92,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is solidus?
Solidus appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce solidus?
- US /ˈsɑlɪdəs/
- UK /ˈsɒlɪdəs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-solidus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of solidus
- solidi plural
- soliduses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does solidus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A Roman ~23k gold coin introduced by Diocletian in AD 301 and called by that name, but reissued at a slightly lower weight by Constantine I.
- 2
Its successor Byzantine coins, from the eleventh century onward of progressively debased weight and purity.
- 3
obsoleteSynonym of sol or sou: a Carolingian unit of account equivalent to a solidus of silver.
- 4
obsoleteSynonym of soldo: the silver coins of various Italian states.
- 5
obsoleteSynonym of shilling: an English unit of account and, following the Tudor dynasty, silver coin.
- 6
The weight of the Roman gold coin, 1/60 of a Roman pound under Diocletian or 1/72 lb. (about 4.5 grams) after Constantine.
- 7
A medieval French weight, 1/20 of the Carolingian pound.
- 8
Synonym of slash ⟨/⟩, originally (UK) in its use as the shilling mark and now its formal designation by the ISO and Unicode.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Solidus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Roman gold coin:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does solidus come from?
From Middle English solidus, from classical Latin solidus (“solid”), see below. Doublet of sol, sold, soldo, solid, sou, and xu. In numismatic and weight senses, via medieval Latin solidus (“various coins”), from Late Latin solidus (“a gold coin of the Roman Empire”). In chemical sense, via German Solidus, coined by H.W.B. Roozeboom in his 1899 Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, Stöchiometrie, und Verwandtschaftslehre (XXX, page 387). In typography, from the shilling mark originally being an abbreviation (a long s ⟨ſ⟩), of Medieval Latin solidus meaning shilling.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).