saltpeter

Questions about saltpeter

What does saltpeter mean?

saltpeter means "(KNO3) used especially as a fertilizer and explosive".

How many syllables are in saltpeter?

saltpeter has 3 syllables and divides as salt-pe-ter under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for saltpeter?

Close synonyms include potassium nitrate, saltpetre, niter, nitre. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is saltpeter a common word?

saltpeter is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.