deadly nightshade

noun

"deadly-nightshade" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“deadly nightshade” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The plant Atropa belladonna, a perennial shrub of the nightshade family that contains high concentrations of the alkaloid atropine which can be deadly if taken in excess.

Key facts for deadly nightshade
PropertyValue
Headworddeadly nightshade
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “deadly nightshade” sits in English frequency

deadly nightshade falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

deadly nightshade is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The plant Atropa belladonna, a perennial shrub of the nightshade family that contains high concentrations of the alkaloid atropine which can be deadly if taken in excess.".

deadly nightshade has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is deadly nightshade, spelled D-E-A-D-L-Y- -N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The plant Atropa belladonna, a perennial shrub of the nightshade family that contains high concentrations of the alkaloid atropine which can be deadly if taken in excess.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "deadly nightshade"?
"deadly nightshade" is spelled D-E-A-D-L-Y- -N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E.
What does "deadly nightshade" mean?
As a noun, "deadly nightshade" means: The plant Atropa belladonna, a perennial shrub of the nightshade family that contains high concentrations of the alkaloid atropine which can be deadly if taken in excess.
What language does "deadly nightshade" come from?
"deadly nightshade" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “deadly nightshade”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is D-E-A-D-L-Y- -N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list