salpêtre

\sal.pɛtʁ\

/\sal.pɛtʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“salpêtre” is uncommon French (frequency #64,765 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,765
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nitrate de potassium, substance qui se forme naturellement sur les vieux murs, les plâtras, etc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-salpetre · salpêtre · French

salpêtre · rank #64,765 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,765
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sacrum

Nearest frequency peer: sacrum (-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 « salpêtre »

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 « salpêtre » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for salpêtre
PropertyValue
Headwordsalpêtre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sal.pɛtʁ\
Letters8
Frequency rank#64,765
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « salpêtre » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).salpêtretombe 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: « sacrum » (#64,764), « sanscrit » (#64,767), « réussissaient » (#64,762). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « salpêtre » est au #64,765. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

salpêtre is uncommon French at frequency #64,765 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \sal.pɛtʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for salpêtre, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is salpêtre, spelled S-A-L-P-Ê-T-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nitrate de potassium, substance qui se forme naturellement sur les vieux murs, les plâtras, etc.
  2. 2
    Nom traditionnel pour le nitre, espèce minérale naturelle identique au nitrate de potassium.
  3. 3
    Vivacité du tempérament.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Plus tard, quelques puissances cherchèrent à faire admettre comme objet de contrebande, les matières que l’industrie pouvait transformer en moyens de défense, telles que le salpêtre, le soufre, le fer, le plomb.
  2. Les murs rongés de salpêtre laissent suinter les eaux montant de la terre et s’écaillent par larges plaques verdâtres.

Synonyms

nitre

This word in other languages

saltpetre(English)salitre(Español)Salpeter(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 "salpêtre"?
"salpêtre" is spelled S-A-L-P-Ê-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sal.pɛtʁ\.
What does "salpêtre" mean?
As a noun, "salpêtre" means: Nitrate de potassium, substance qui se forme naturellement sur les vieux murs, les plâtras, etc.
How do you pronounce "salpêtre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "salpêtre" is \sal.pɛtʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "salpêtre" come from?
"salpêtre" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sanscrit#64,767saumâtre#64,771serenity#64,780Roseline#64,749

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list