valley of the shadow of death
Detailed reference entry for the English word "valley-of-the-shadow-of-death", 29-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "valley-of-the-shadow-of-death" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "valley-of-the-shadow-of-death" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“valley of the shadow of death” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 29
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The world, a place where darkness and death are figurative valleys one must walk through as part of the human experience.
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See how valley of the shadow of death compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | valley of the shadow of death |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 29 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “valley of the shadow of death” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for valley of the shadow of death is 29 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for valley of the shadow of death in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Psalm 23 of the Book of Psalms. "Shadow of death" is a calque of Hebrew צלמות. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is valley of the shadow of death, spelled V-A-L-L-E-Y- -O-F- -T-H-E- -S-H-A-D-O-W- -O-F- -D-E-A-T-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The world, a place where darkness and death are figurative valleys one must walk through as part of the human experience.
- 2A very dangerous place.
Etymology
From Psalm 23 of the Book of Psalms. "Shadow of death" is a calque of Hebrew צלמות.
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.
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PlainSpell, “valley of the shadow of death, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/valley-of-the-shadow-of-death
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Using “valley of the shadow of death”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is V-A-L-L-E-Y- -O-F- -T-H-E- -S-H-A-D-O-W- -O-F- -D-E-A-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter V in our English index: