black ice
"black-ice" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“black ice” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A smooth, barely visible, and dangerously slippery film of ice, usually over a dark surface, such as rock or pavement.
Corpus desk
Index EN-black-ice · black ice · English
black ice · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | black ice |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “black ice” in English
Rare enough to double-check
black ice is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A smooth, barely visible, and dangerously slippery film of ice, usually over a dark surface, such as rock or pavement.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for black ice, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is black ice, spelled B-L-A-C-K- -I-C-E.
Definition
- 1A smooth, barely visible, and dangerously slippery film of ice, usually over a dark surface, such as rock or pavement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how black ice appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He said the bus struck a patch of black ice, or freshly formed ice as yet invisible on the road surface, just after he had passed a trailer truck.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.