nitroglycerine
"nitroglycerine" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nitroglycerine” is uncommon English (frequency #98,498 among 24,391 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,498
- frequency rank, English
- 24,391
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The compound glyceryl-tri-nitrate or 1,2,3 tri-nitrooxy propane; the ester of glycerol with nitric acid; prepared by the careful addition of a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids to glycerol with...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nitroglycerine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Frequency rank | #98,498 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nitroglycerine” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
nitroglycerine is uncommon English at frequency #98,498 among 24,391 “N” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The compound glyceryl-tri-nitrate or 1,2,3 tri-nitrooxy propane; the ester of glycerol with nitric acid; prepared by the careful addition of a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids to glycerol with...".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nitroglycerine, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From nitro- + glycerine. The correct English form is nitroglycerine, spelled N-I-T-R-O-G-L-Y-C-E-R-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1The compound glyceryl-tri-nitrate or 1,2,3 tri-nitrooxy propane; the ester of glycerol with nitric acid; prepared by the careful addition of a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids to glycerol with constant stirring and cooling; it is a thick, pale yellow liquid, that is highly explosive on concussion or on exposure to sudden heat; it is used in medicine as a vasodilator, and as an explosive in the form of dynamite which is safe to handle.
Etymology
From nitro- + glycerine.
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 “nitroglycerine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-I-T-R-O-G-L-Y-C-E-R-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.