marimba

/[maˈɾĩmba]/ noun

The verdict

“marimba” is an uncommon Spanish word, ranked #52,382 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.

#52,382
frequency rank, Spanish
7
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Instrumento de percusión, un idiófono, de forma parecida al xilófono. Consiste en un paralelepípedo de madera con una boca superior cuadrangular recogida por los bordes y que ensancha en la parte s...

Key facts for marimba
PropertyValue
Headwordmarimba
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[maˈɾĩmba]
Letters7
Frequency rank#52,382
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “marimba” sits in Spanish frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). marimba lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for marimba is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [maˈɾĩmba]. Corpus data places it at rank #52,382 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Instrumento de percusión, un idiófono, de forma parecida al xilófono. Consiste en un paralelepípedo de madera con una boca superior cuadrangular recogida por los bordes y que ensancha en la parte s...".

No misspelling variants are generated for marimba in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns. 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.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is marimba, spelled M-A-R-I-M-B-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Instrumento de percusión, un idiófono, de forma parecida al xilófono. Consiste en un paralelepípedo de madera con una boca superior cuadrangular recogida por los bordes y que ensancha en la parte superior y se estrecha en la parte inferior hasta cerrarse en forma piramidal. Posee una serie de tablas delgadas (lengüetas sonoras) de distintos tamaños, dispuestas de mayor a menor, excavadas por la parte inferior. Estas lengüetas tienen perforaciones en sus extremos, y por esos orificios se atan con cordones que las sostienen suspendidas de clavijas verticales, fijas en un armazón trapezoidal. Cada tecla tiene su propia caja de resonancia.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #52,382 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "marimba"?
"marimba" is spelled M-A-R-I-M-B-A. The IPA pronunciation is [maˈɾĩmba].
What does "marimba" mean?
As a noun, "marimba" means: Instrumento de percusión, un idiófono, de forma parecida al xilófono. Consiste en un paralelepípedo de madera con una boca superior cuadrangular recogida por los bordes y que ensancha en la parte s...
How do you pronounce "marimba"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "marimba" is [maˈɾĩmba]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "marimba" come from?
"marimba" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “marimba”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct Spanish spelling is M-A-R-I-M-B-A — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [maˈɾĩmba] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.