eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for darkness

5 headwords match “darkness”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; deorcnes ranks first.

  1. 1

    deorcnes

    score 24

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 4 inflected forms

    darkness — darkness, obscurity

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular deorcnes
    genitive singular deorcnesse
    dative singular deorcnesse
    accusative singular deorcnesse
    nominative plural deorcnessa, deorcnesse
    genitive plural deorcnessa
  2. 2

    mirce

    score 15

    adjective · 11 inflected forms

    darkness — darkness

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    strong nominative singular masculine mirce
    strong nominative singular feminine mircu, mirco
    strong nominative singular neuter mirce
    strong accusative singular masculine mircne
    strong accusative singular feminine mirce
    strong accusative singular neuter mirce
  3. 3

    þiestru

    score 15

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 4 inflected forms

    darkness — darkness

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular þīestru
    genitive singular þīestre
    dative singular þīestre
    accusative singular þīestre
    nominative plural þīestra, þīestre
    genitive plural þīestra
  4. 4

    heolstor

    score 15

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 5 inflected forms

    darkness — darkness, veil, covering

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular heolstor
    genitive singular heolstres
    dative singular heolstre
    accusative singular heolstor
    nominative plural heolstor
    genitive plural heolstra
  5. 5

    þeosternes

    score 15

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 2 inflected forms

    darkness — darkness

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular þēosternes
    genitive singular þēosternesse
    dative singular þēosternesse
    accusative singular þēosternesse

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “darkness” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “darkness”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0