Mormon tea

noun

"mormon-tea" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Mormon tea” 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 May 6, 2026) - Any of the North American conifers in the genus Ephedra, leafless shrubs with gray or green needle-like smaller stems native to deserts and used to make an herbal tea.

Key facts for Mormon tea
PropertyValue
HeadwordMormon tea
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Mormon tea” sits in English frequency

Mormon tea 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

Mormon tea is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of the North American conifers in the genus Ephedra, leafless shrubs with gray or green needle-like smaller stems native to deserts and used to make an herbal tea.".

No misspelling variants are generated for Mormon tea in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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: One of a number of common names based on types of people known to live in the desert, with tea referring to the herbal drink brewed from the plant. The correct English form is Mormon tea, spelled M-O-R-M-O-N- -T-E-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of the North American conifers in the genus Ephedra, leafless shrubs with gray or green needle-like smaller stems native to deserts and used to make an herbal tea.

Etymology

One of a number of common names based on types of people known to live in the desert, with tea referring to the herbal drink brewed from the plant.

Synonyms

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 "Mormon tea"?
"Mormon tea" is spelled M-O-R-M-O-N- -T-E-A.
What does "Mormon tea" mean?
As a noun, "Mormon tea" means: Any of the North American conifers in the genus Ephedra, leafless shrubs with gray or green needle-like smaller stems native to deserts and used to make an herbal tea.
What is the origin of the word "Mormon tea"?
One of a number of common names based on types of people known to live in the desert, with tea referring to the herbal drink brewed from the plant. 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.

Using “Mormon tea”

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

  • The one correct English spelling is M-O-R-M-O-N- -T-E-A - 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