somersault
/ˈsʌmɚˌsɔlt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.48 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Starting on one's feet, an instance of rotating one's body 360 degrees while airborne or on the ground, with one's feet passing over one's head.
verb
To perform a somersault.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: backflip"
- "The performer somersaulted all the way across the stage."
- "He half-carries, half-drags it back to the stern, making sure the heat exchanger stays in the water, and somersaults it into the zodiac."
Etymology
From French sombresault (now obsolete, compare French sursaut, soubresaut), from Old Occitan sobresalt, from sobre- (“over, above”) + salt (“jump”), from Latin suprā (“over”) + saltus (“jump”). Doublet of soubresaut. Cognate with Spanish sobresaltar (“to spook, startle”) and Portuguese sobressaltar (“to spook, scare, jump over”).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsʌmɚˌsɔlt/
- British English: /ˈsʌməˌsɒlt/