mountain ash

noun

"mountain-ash" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A European tree, rowan or, more specifically, European rowan, of species Sorbus aucuparia.

Corpus desk

Index EN-mountain-ash · mountain ash · English

mountain ash · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" 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.

Key facts for mountain ash
PropertyValue
Headwordmountain ash
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “mountain ash” in English

mountain ashfalls 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

mountain ash is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for mountain ash, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is mountain ash, spelled M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N- -A-S-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    A European tree, rowan or, more specifically, European rowan, of species Sorbus aucuparia.
  2. 2
    Any of several trees in the genus Sorbus in North America.
  3. 3
    A tree native to southeastern Australia, Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest of all flowering plants.
  4. 4
    A Texan ash tree of species Fraxinus texensis.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mountain ash appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. On the verdant slope and down by the edge of the water, the bird-cherry and the mountain ash displayed their flowery garb of summer.
  2. Various measures were taken to avoid it, most popular being the suspension of certain herbs and tree branches over the doorways of dwellings and stables. Commonly used greenery were tansy, honesty, garlic, St. John's Wort, mountain ash, roadside verbena.

Synonyms

European rowanrowanquickenstringy gumswamp gumTasmanian oakVictorian ashTexas ash

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 "mountain ash"?
"mountain ash" is spelled M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N- -A-S-H.
What does "mountain ash" mean?
As a noun, "mountain ash" means: A European tree, rowan or, more specifically, European rowan, of species Sorbus aucuparia.
What language does "mountain ash" come from?
"mountain ash" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list