pennyroyal
/pɛ̝nɪˈɹɔɪ̯əl/
"pennyroyal" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pennyroyal” 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 September 3, 2026) - Mentha pulegium, a plant of the mint family, formerly much used in various medicinal treatments and as a flea repellent.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pennyroyal · pennyroyal · English
pennyroyal · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pennyroyal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɛ̝nɪˈɹɔɪ̯əl/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pennyroyal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pennyroyal is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɛ̝nɪˈɹɔɪ̯əl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for pennyroyal in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Apparently an alteration (after penny) of Anglo-Norman puliol royal, from Latin pūlegium. The correct English form is pennyroyal, spelled P-E-N-N-Y-R-O-Y-A-L.
Definition
- 1Mentha pulegium, a plant of the mint family, formerly much used in various medicinal treatments and as a flea repellent.
- 2A traditional old well-known song, especially a spiritual folksong.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pennyroyal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dioscorides says that Pennyroyal makes thin, tough phlegm, warms the coldness of any part whereto it is applied, and digests raw or corrupt matter.
Offenbach and the old college airs, song and dance tunes and pennyroyals, formed the staples for the introduction of hits on manners and times.
Etymology
Apparently an alteration (after penny) of Anglo-Norman puliol royal, from Latin pūlegium.
Synonyms
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.