nightshade
/ˈnaɪt.ʃeɪd/
"nightshade" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nightshade” is uncommon English (frequency #50,109 among 24,391 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,109
- frequency rank, English
- 24,391
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of the poisonous plants belonging to the genus Solanum, especially black nightshade or woody nightshade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nightshade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈnaɪt.ʃeɪd/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #50,109 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nightshade” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
nightshade is uncommon English at frequency #50,109 among 24,391 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈnaɪt.ʃeɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
nightshade has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nyȝtschade, niȝteschode, nyght shade, from Old English nihtsċada, from Proto-West Germanic *nahtskadō (“nightshade”), corresponding to night + shade. Compare Dutch nachtschade (“nightshade”), German Nachtschatten (“nightshade”). The correct English form is nightshade, spelled N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1Any of the poisonous plants belonging to the genus Solanum, especially black nightshade or woody nightshade.
- 2Any plant of the wider Solanaceae family, including the nightshades as well as tomato, potato, eggplant, and deadly nightshade.
- 3Belladonna or deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna).
- 4Any of several plants likened to nightshade, usually because of similar dark-colored berries.
Etymology
From Middle English nyȝtschade, niȝteschode, nyght shade, from Old English nihtsċada, from Proto-West Germanic *nahtskadō (“nightshade”), corresponding to night + shade. Compare Dutch nachtschade (“nightshade”), German Nachtschatten (“nightshade”).
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 “nightshade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-I-G-H-T-S-H-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈnaɪt.ʃeɪd/ (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.