black lead
"black-lead" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“black lead” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The metal lead.
Corpus desk
Index EN-black-lead · black lead · English
black lead · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 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 lead |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “black lead” in English
Rare enough to double-check
black lead is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for black lead, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: In the sense of lead, calque of Latin plumbum nigrum (“lead”, literally “black lead”). The correct English form is black lead, spelled B-L-A-C-K- -L-E-A-D.
Definition
- 1The metal lead.
- 2Graphite, especially as used in pencils.
- 3A graphite pencil.
- 4A type of polish made from graphite, used for kitchen cleaning and blackening grates.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how black lead appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She always washed without soap: there were no hearth-stones nor black-lead dust for the stoves; nor a cake of whitening for the kitchen-grate […].
Etymology
In the sense of lead, calque of Latin plumbum nigrum (“lead”, literally “black lead”).
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.