nest egg

noun

"nest-egg" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A natural or artificial egg placed in a bird's nest, to encourage the bird to lay its own eggs there.

Corpus desk

Index EN-nest-egg · nest egg · English

nest egg · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "N" 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 nest egg
PropertyValue
Headwordnest egg
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “nest egg” in English

nest eggfalls 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

nest egg is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

nest egg has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is nest egg, spelled N-E-S-T- -E-G-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    A natural or artificial egg placed in a bird's nest, to encourage the bird to lay its own eggs there.
  2. 2
    A saving; a reserve of money.
  3. 3
    An egg squash.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. My improvement relates to artificial eggs composed of a substance which is offensive to insects, the object being to render the same effective, not only as a nest-egg, but also as a destroyer of vermin.
  2. Over time, they accumulated a tidy nest egg and retired comfortably.

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 "nest egg"?
"nest egg" is spelled N-E-S-T- -E-G-G.
What does "nest egg" mean?
As a noun, "nest egg" means: A natural or artificial egg placed in a bird's nest, to encourage the bird to lay its own eggs there.
What language does "nest egg" come from?
"nest egg" 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?
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list