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xanthippe

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "xanthippe", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "xanthippe" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "xanthippe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

Xanthippe is aEnglishnoun. It means: An ill-tempered woman. Pronounced /zænˈθɪpi/.

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Key facts for Xanthippe
PropertyValue
HeadwordXanthippe
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/zænˈθɪpi/
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Xanthippe is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for Xanthippe is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /zænˈθɪpi/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An ill-tempered woman.".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for Xanthippe in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.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: Borrowed from Latin Xanthippē or its etymon Ancient Greek Ξανθίππη (Xanthíppē), the name of Socrates’ wife, from ξανθός (xanthós, “blond; golden, yellow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱas- (“blond; grey; white”)) + ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) (ultimate… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is Xanthippe, spelled X-A-N-T-H-I-P-P-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    An ill-tempered woman.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Xanthippē or its etymon Ancient Greek Ξανθίππη (Xanthíppē), the name of Socrates’ wife, from ξανθός (xanthós, “blond; golden, yellow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱas- (“blond; grey; white”)) + ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eḱ- (“horse; swift (?)”)). She is described as shrewish in Xenophon’s Symposium, though the same work states that Socrates chose her precisely because of her argumentative spirit. In Xenophon’s Memorabilia and Phaedo by Plato she is depicted as a devoted wife and mother.

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Xanthippe"?
"Xanthippe" is spelled X-A-N-T-H-I-P-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is /zænˈθɪpi/.
What does "Xanthippe" mean?
As a noun, "Xanthippe" means: An ill-tempered woman.
How do you pronounce "Xanthippe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Xanthippe" is /zænˈθɪpi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "Xanthippe"?
Borrowed from Latin Xanthippē or its etymon Ancient Greek Ξανθίππη (Xanthíppē), the name of Socrates’ wife, from ξανθός (xanthós, “blond; golden, yellow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱas- (“blond; grey; white”)) + ἵππος (híppos, “horse”)... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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.

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.