Word.ws English Dictionary

belladonna

/ˌbɛləˈdɒnə/US/ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/

belladonna noun: a plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries.

belladonna: a plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries
Image: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

belladonna (countable and uncountable, plural belladonnas)

  1. A plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries.
    • Witches always anointed themselves with ointments before departing up the chimney to their Sabbaths. One such ointment was composed of Aconite, Belladonna, Water Parsley, Cinquefoil and Babies' Fat.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 112
  2. An alkaloid extracted from this plant, sometimes used medicinally, containing atropine.
    • The elderly women who practiced herbalism and administered belladonna (a pain killer) to pregnant women were apt to be accused of witchcraft. The Medieval church was against the administration of belladonna because they believed women were meant to suffer pain in childbirth as a result of Eve's sin.1976 December 11, Tommi Avicolli, “The Middle Ages: Lest We Forget...”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 11
    • Cathy teetered downstairs on very high heels, her hair swept up in a disintegrating “brioche”, her eyes glistening with belladonna drops.2005 June 13, Edmund White, “My Women: Learning how to love them.”, in The New Yorker

Proper noun capitalized: Belladonna

Belladonna

  1. (uncommon) A female given name.
    • Oliver summed up his observations by conceding that in the early nineteen twenties before he — or, for that matter, she herself was born — Belladonna Jones might have been devastating.1951, John Brophy, Windfall: A Diversion, page 128

belladonna meaning in Tamil

belladonna in Tamil

பெல்லடோன்னா நச்சுப்பூண்டு, பெல்லடோனா, கொடிய நச்சுப்பூண்டு வகை

Synonyms of belladonna

Forms of belladonna

pluralbelladonnas

Origin of belladonna

Borrowed from Italian belladonna (altered by folk etymology: bella donna (“beautiful lady”)) from Medieval Latin blādōna (“nightshade”), of Gaulish origin. The folk etymology was motivated by the cosmetic use of nightshade for dilating the eyes.

See belladonna.

Words formed from belladonna

  • belladonna lily
  • belladonnized
  • belladonized
  • Belladonna mottle virus

Words that rhyme with belladonna

Questions about belladonna

What does belladonna mean?
Belladonna means a plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries.
What is belladonna in Tamil?
Belladonna in Tamil is பெல்லடோன்னா நச்சுப்பூண்டு, பெல்லடோனா, கொடிய நச்சுப்பூண்டு வகை. See Belladonna meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is belladonna?
Belladonna can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce belladonna?
Belladonna is pronounced /ˌbɛləˈdɑnə/ (US).
What is the plural of belladonna?
The plural of belladonna is belladonnas.

Words near belladonna in the dictionary

  1. Bella Vista
  2. Bellabella
  3. Bellacoola
  4. belladine
  5. belladonine
  6. belladonna
  7. belladonnas
  8. belladonnine
  9. belladonnized
  10. Bellagio
  11. Bellah

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: belladonna (page history and authors); Belladonna (page history and authors); belladonna (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-belladonna.wav.

Cite this entry: “belladonna.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belladonna. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.