marimba

\ma.ʁim.ba\

/\ma.ʁim.ba\/ noun

The verdict

“marimba” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Xylophone africain dont chaque lame est munie d’un résonateur en bambou, en bois, ou en calebasse.

Key facts for marimba
PropertyValue
Headwordmarimba
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ma.ʁim.ba\
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “marimba” sits in French frequency

marimba falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

marimba is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ma.ʁim.ba\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Xylophone africain dont chaque lame est munie d’un résonateur en bambou, en bois, ou en calebasse.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for marimba, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is marimba, spelled M-A-R-I-M-B-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Xylophone africain dont chaque lame est munie d’un résonateur en bambou, en bois, ou en calebasse.

Synonyms

marimbaphone

This word in other languages

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "marimba"?
"marimba" is spelled M-A-R-I-M-B-A. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.ʁim.ba\.
What does "marimba" mean?
As a noun, "marimba" means: Xylophone africain dont chaque lame est munie d’un résonateur en bambou, en bois, ou en calebasse.
How do you pronounce "marimba"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "marimba" is \ma.ʁim.ba\. 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 French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 French spelling is M-A-R-I-M-B-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ma.ʁim.ba\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list