atropine

/ˈa.tɹə.piːn/

//ˈa.tɹə.piːn// noun

"atropine" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“atropine” is uncommon English (frequency #52,159 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#52,159
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An alkaloid extracted from the plant deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and other sources, such as the seeds of the thorn-apple. Though overdoses would be fatal it is used as a drug in medicine ...

Corpus desk

Index EN-atropine · atropine · English

atropine · rank #52,159 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #52,159
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH athenaeum

Nearest frequency peer: athenaeum (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

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.

Long-tail ranks near “atropine”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “atropine” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for atropine
PropertyValue
Headwordatropine
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈa.tɹə.piːn/
Letters8
Frequency rank#52,159
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “atropine” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).atropinefalls in this rarity band:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “athenaeum” (#52,158), “attentively” (#52,160), “Atalanta” (#52,157). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “atropine” is #52,159. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

atropine is uncommon English at frequency #52,159 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈa.tɹə.piːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An alkaloid extracted from the plant deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and other sources, such as the seeds of the thorn-apple. Though overdoses would be fatal it is used as a drug in medicine ...".

atropine has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin Atropa (“genus of deadly nightshade”) + -ine. The correct English form is atropine, spelled A-T-R-O-P-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    An alkaloid extracted from the plant deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and other sources, such as the seeds of the thorn-apple. Though overdoses would be fatal it is used as a drug in medicine for its paralytic effects (e.g. in surgery to relax muscles, in dentistry to dry the mouth, in ophthalmology to dilate the pupils).

Etymology

From Latin Atropa (“genus of deadly nightshade”) + -ine.

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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "atropine"?
"atropine" is spelled A-T-R-O-P-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈa.tɹə.piːn/.
What does "atropine" mean?
As a noun, "atropine" means: An alkaloid extracted from the plant deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and other sources, such as the seeds of the thorn-apple. Though overdoses would be fatal it is used as a drug in medicine ...
How do you pronounce "atropine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "atropine" is /ˈa.tɹə.piːn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "atropine"?
From Latin Atropa (“genus of deadly nightshade”) + -ine. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 English words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list