blackening

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"blackening" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“blackening” is uncommon English (frequency #85,041 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#85,041
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of blacken

Corpus desk

Index EN-blackening · blackening · English

blackening · rank #85,041 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #85,041
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bittern

Nearest frequency peer: bittern (-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 “blackening”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for blackening
PropertyValue
Headwordblackening
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters10
Frequency rank#85,041
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “blackening” 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).blackeningfalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “bittern” (#85,040), “blackhead” (#85,042), “bist” (#85,039). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “blackening” is #85,041. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

blackening is uncommon English at frequency #85,041 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "present participle and gerund of blacken".

Zero misspellings are on record for blackening in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From blacken + -ing. The correct English form is blackening, spelled B-L-A-C-K-E-N-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of blacken

Etymology

From blacken + -ing.

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 "blackening"?
"blackening" is spelled B-L-A-C-K-E-N-I-N-G.
What does "blackening" mean?
As a verb, "blackening" means: present participle and gerund of blacken
What is the origin of the word "blackening"?
From blacken + -ing. 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 "blackening", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

biodynamic#85,037blockhouse#85,046Brailsford#85,057cavalryman#85,096

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list