eggshell
/ˈɛɡʃɛl/
"eggshell" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“eggshell” is uncommon English (frequency #54,754 among 18,836 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,754
- frequency rank, English
- 18,836
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The shell around an egg.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eggshell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛɡʃɛl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #54,754 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “eggshell” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
eggshell is uncommon English at frequency #54,754 among 18,836 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɛɡʃɛl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
eggshell has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English eggeshell, ege schelle, egg-shel, egg shelle (also as Middle English eye schell, ey-schel, ey-schelle), partially continuing Old English ǣġsċill, ǣġsċyll (“eggshell”), equivalent to egg + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oaierskil (… The correct English form is eggshell, spelled E-G-G-S-H-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1The shell around an egg.
- 2A pale off-white colour, like that of the eggshell of many chickens.
Etymology
From Middle English eggeshell, ege schelle, egg-shel, egg shelle (also as Middle English eye schell, ey-schel, ey-schelle), partially continuing Old English ǣġsċill, ǣġsċyll (“eggshell”), equivalent to egg + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oaierskil (“eggshell”), Dutch eierschaal (“eggshell”), German Eierschale (“eggshell”), Danish æggeskal (“eggshell”), Swedish äggskal (“eggshell”).
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); 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 “eggshell”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-G-G-S-H-E-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɛɡʃɛl/ (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.