Skip to main content
PlainSpell

daft

/dæft/adjective

daft is spelled D-A-F-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, daft means “Foolish, silly, stupid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in daft?

Letters4: D-A-F-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.8 times per million words; the 16,228th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is daft?

Daft appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce daft?

  • UK /dɑːft/
  • US /dæft/

Daft has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-daft.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-daft.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with daft?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as daft from its last stressed vowel (/æft/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of daft

  • dafter comparative
  • daftest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does daft mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    AustraliaIrelandUKinformalFoolish, silly, stupid.

    a daft idea

  2. 2

    AustraliaIrelandUKinformalCrazy, insane, mad.

  3. 3

    obsoleteGentle, meek, mild.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Daft in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdingue, branque (foolish, silly – see also foolish, silly), cinglé (crazy, insane – see also crazy, insane, mad), simplet (stupid – see also stupid)
Germanalbern (foolish, silly – see also foolish, silly), verrückt (crazy, insane – see also crazy, insane, mad), blöd, bescheuert, doof (stupid – see also stupid)
Portuguesesandeu (foolish, silly – see also foolish, silly), louco (crazy, insane – see also crazy, insane, mad), estúpido (stupid – see also stupid)
Spanishtonto (foolish, silly – see also foolish, silly), loco (crazy, insane – see also crazy, insane, mad), estúpido (stupid – see also stupid)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does daft come from?

From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”). Doublet of deft. Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after daft