pitch-dark

adj

"pitch-dark" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“pitch-dark” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. 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) - Absolutely dark or black; as dark as pitch.

Corpus desk

Index EN-pitch-dark · pitch-dark · English

pitch-dark · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-2 2 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.

Key facts for pitch-dark
PropertyValue
Headwordpitch-dark
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “pitch-dark” in English

pitch-darkranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pitch-dark is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Absolutely dark or black; as dark as pitch.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for pitch-dark in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is pitch-dark, spelled P-I-T-C-H---D-A-R-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    Absolutely dark or black; as dark as pitch.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The assassin crept into the royal bedchamber only after it was pitch-dark.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pitch-dark"?
"pitch-dark" is spelled P-I-T-C-H---D-A-R-K.
What does "pitch-dark" mean?
As an adjective, "pitch-dark" means: Absolutely dark or black; as dark as pitch.
What language does "pitch-dark" come from?
"pitch-dark" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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