dagger
/ˈdæɡə/
"dagger" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dagger” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,101 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,101
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A stabbing weapon, similar to a sword but with a short, double-edged blade.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dagger |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdæɡə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #14,101 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dagger” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dagger is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdæɡə/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,101 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for dagger, with forms such as "adgger", "dagegr", and "dager". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "danger", "dancer", "darker", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English daggere, daggare, dagard, probably adapted from Old French dague (1229), related to Occitan, Italian, Spanish daga, Dutch dagge, German Degen, Middle Low German dagge (“knife's point”), Old Norse daggarðr, Danish daggert, Faroese daggari… The correct English form is dagger, spelled D-A-G-G-E-R.
Definition
- 1A stabbing weapon, similar to a sword but with a short, double-edged blade.
- 2The typographical mark †.
- 3A point scored near the end of the game (clutch time) to take or increase the scorer's team lead, so that they are likely to win.
Etymology
From Middle English daggere, daggare, dagard, probably adapted from Old French dague (1229), related to Occitan, Italian, Spanish daga, Dutch dagge, German Degen, Middle Low German dagge (“knife's point”), Old Norse daggarðr, Danish daggert, Faroese daggari, Welsh dager, dagr, Breton dac, Albanian thikë (“a knife, dagger”), thek (“to stab, to pierce with a sharp object”). In English attested from the 1380s. The ultimate origin of the word is unclear. Grimm suspects Celtic origin. Others have suggested derivation from an unattested Vulgar Latin *daca "Dacian [knife]", from the Latin adjective dācus. Chastelain (Dictionaire etymologique, 1750) thought that French dague was a derivation from German dagge, dagen, although not attested until a much later date). The knightly dagger evolves from the 12th century. Guillaume le Breton (died 1226) uses daca in his Philippide. Other Middle Latin forms include daga, dagga, dagha, dagger, daggerius, daggerium, dagarium, dagarius, diga; the forms with -r- are late 14th century adoptions of the English word). OED points out that there is also an English verb dag (“to stab”) from which this could be a derivation, but the verb is attested only from about 1400. Relation to Old Armenian դակու (daku, “adze, axe”) has also been suggested. Alternatively, a connection from Proto-Indo-European *dʰāg-u- and cognate with Ancient Greek θήγω (thḗgō, “to sharpen, whet”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: adgger,dagegr,dager,daggerr,daggre,ddagger,dgager
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dagger - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “dagger”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-A-G-G-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdæɡə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “danger” - see the side-by-side comparison. dagger vs danger
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.