Dahomey
/dəˈhəʊmi/
"dahomey" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Dahomey” is uncommon English (frequency #76,687 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,687
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A former kingdom in West Africa, existing from c. 1600–1904 and located in the southern part of present-day Benin.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dahomey · Dahomey · English
Dahomey · rank #76,687 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,687
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH daimon
Nearest frequency peer: daimon (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “Dahomey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- cruse
cruse
23,319 corpus weight
- crutcher
crutcher
23,318 corpus weight
- Cuthbertson
Cuthbertson
23,316 corpus weight
- Dahomey
Dahomey
23,314 corpus weight
- daimon
daimon
23,313 corpus weight
- datasheet
datasheet
23,311 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Dahomey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Dahomey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /dəˈhəʊmi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #76,687 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Dahomey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Dahomey is uncommon English at frequency #76,687 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /dəˈhəʊmi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for Dahomey in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Fon dã homè (“belly of Dã; snake's belly”). The correct English form is Dahomey, spelled D-A-H-O-M-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A former kingdom in West Africa, existing from c. 1600–1904 and located in the southern part of present-day Benin.
- 2Former name of Benin: a country in West Africa; used from 1958–1975. Official name: Republic of Dahomey.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Dahomey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The way other children hear tell of Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks, I heard of this ‘Black Sparta’, the noble kingdom of Dahomey, fighting to hold off the French to the very end.
Etymology
From Fon dã homè (“belly of Dã; snake's belly”).
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Dahomey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).