loosestrife
"loosestrife" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“loosestrife” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.
Corpus desk
Index EN-loosestrife · loosestrife · English
loosestrife · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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 | loosestrife |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “loosestrife” in English
Rare enough to double-check
loosestrife is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.".
No misspelling variants are generated for loosestrife in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Ancient Greek λυσιμάχειον (lusimákheion), as if from λύσις (lúsis, “loosening”) + μάχη (mákhē, “battle, strife”). The correct English form is loosestrife, spelled L-O-O-S-E-S-T-R-I-F-E.
Definition
- 1Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how loosestrife appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91, He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.
Most loosestrifes thrive in the northern part of the United States and Canada but only a few make good garden plants for the South.
Etymology
Calque of Ancient Greek λυσιμάχειον (lusimákheion), as if from λύσις (lúsis, “loosening”) + μάχη (mákhē, “battle, strife”).
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.