vervain
/ˈvɜːveɪn/
"vervain" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vervain” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any herbaceous plant in the genus Verbena especially if used for medicinal purposes, primarily Verbena officinalis, common in Europe and formerly held to have medicinal properties.
Corpus desk
Index EN-vervain · vervain · English
vervain · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "V" 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 | vervain |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈvɜːveɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “vervain” in English
Rare enough to double-check
vervain is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈvɜːveɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any herbaceous plant in the genus Verbena especially if used for medicinal purposes, primarily Verbena officinalis, common in Europe and formerly held to have medicinal properties.".
No misspelling variants are generated for vervain in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English verveyne, from Old French verveine, from Latin verbēna. Doublet of verbena. The correct English form is vervain, spelled V-E-R-V-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Any herbaceous plant in the genus Verbena especially if used for medicinal purposes, primarily Verbena officinalis, common in Europe and formerly held to have medicinal properties.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how vervain appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The Yarrow, where-with-all he stops the wound-made gore: The healing Tutsan then, and Plantan for a sore. And hard by them againe he holy Vervaine finds, Which he about his head that hath the Megrim binds.
The candlesticks were surrounded by wreaths of vervain[.]
Etymology
From Middle English verveyne, from Old French verveine, from Latin verbēna. Doublet of verbena.
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.