palimpseste

\pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\

/\pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“palimpseste” is uncommon French (frequency #85,097 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#85,097
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Manuscrit dont on a fait disparaître l’écriture pour y écrire un autre texte.

Corpus desk

Index FR-palimpseste · palimpseste · French

palimpseste · rank #85,097 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #85,097
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pali

Nearest frequency peer: pali (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « palimpseste »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « palimpseste » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for palimpseste
PropertyValue
Headwordpalimpseste
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\
Letters11
Frequency rank#85,097
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « palimpseste » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).palimpsestetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « pali » (#85,096), « palissandre » (#85,098), « pachydermes » (#85,095). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « palimpseste » est au #85,097. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

palimpseste is uncommon French at frequency #85,097 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for palimpseste, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is palimpseste, spelled P-A-L-I-M-P-S-E-S-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Manuscrit dont on a fait disparaître l’écriture pour y écrire un autre texte.
  2. 2
    Œuvre architecturale qui a subi de nombreuses modifications apportées à la structure d’origine.
  3. 3
    Tache circulaire, claire et sans relief apparent, qui est observée à la surface d’astres sombres et glacés, et peut correspondre à un cratère d’impact météoritique dont le relief aurait été complètement érodé.
  4. 4
    Document à réécrire ; concept à redéfinir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how palimpseste appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Au moyen âge, la rareté du parchemin rendit commun l’usage des palimpsestes.
  2. En faisant reparaître la première écriture des palimpsestes, on a retrouvé plusieurs fragments d’auteurs anciens.

This word in other languages

palimpsest(English)palimpsesto(Español)Palimpsest(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "palimpseste"?
"palimpseste" is spelled P-A-L-I-M-P-S-E-S-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\.
What does "palimpseste" mean?
As a noun, "palimpseste" means: Manuscrit dont on a fait disparaître l’écriture pour y écrire un autre texte.
How do you pronounce "palimpseste"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "palimpseste" is \pa.lɛ̃p.sɛst\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "palimpseste" come from?
"palimpseste" is a French 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "palimpseste", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

palissandre#85,098pachydermes#85,095néolibéraux#85,067nécromancie#85,066

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list