saltimbanque
\sal.tɛ̃.bɑ̃k\
The verdict
“saltimbanque” is an uncommon French word, ranked #59,624 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #59,624
- frequency rank, French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bateleur qui débite ses boniments et fait ses exercices sur les places publiques, dans les foires.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | saltimbanque |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sal.tɛ̃.bɑ̃k\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #59,624 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “saltimbanque” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for saltimbanque is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sal.tɛ̃.bɑ̃k\. Corpus data places it at rank #59,624 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for saltimbanque in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French 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 French form is saltimbanque, spelled S-A-L-T-I-M-B-A-N-Q-U-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Bateleur qui débite ses boniments et fait ses exercices sur les places publiques, dans les foires.
- 2Bouffon de société et mauvais orateur qui débite, avec des gestes outrés, des plaisanteries déplacées.
- 3Homme sans consistance, dont les actes et les propos ne méritent aucune considération à cause de sa légèreté et de son manque de sérieux.
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “saltimbanque, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/saltimbanque
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "saltimbanque"?
What does "saltimbanque" mean?
How do you pronounce "saltimbanque"?
What language does "saltimbanque" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “saltimbanque”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-A-L-T-I-M-B-A-N-Q-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sal.tɛ̃.bɑ̃k\ (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
Nearby French words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index: