belladonna
/ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/
"belladonna" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“belladonna” is uncommon English (frequency #51,563 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,563
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | belladonna |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #51,563 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belladonna” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
belladonna is uncommon English at frequency #51,563 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for belladonna, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian belladonna (altered by folk etymology: bella donna (“beautiful lady”)) from Medieval Latin blādōna (“nightshade”), of Gaulish origin. The folk etymology was motivated by the cosmetic use of nightshade for dilating the eyes. The correct English form is belladonna, spelled B-E-L-L-A-D-O-N-N-A.
Definition
- 1A plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries.
- 2An alkaloid extracted from this plant, sometimes used medicinally, containing atropine.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian belladonna (altered by folk etymology: bella donna (“beautiful lady”)) from Medieval Latin blādōna (“nightshade”), of Gaulish origin. The folk etymology was motivated by the cosmetic use of nightshade for dilating the eyes.
Synonyms
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
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Using “belladonna”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-L-L-A-D-O-N-N-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.