dawdle
/ˈdɔːdl̩/
"dawdle" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dawdle” is an uncommon English word, ranked #97,999 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #97,999
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dawdle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈdɔːdl̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #97,999 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dawdle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dawdle is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɔːdl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #97,999 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.
dawdle doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is possibly: * a variant of daddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk or work slowly, dawdle, saunter, trifle”) or doddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk feebly or slowly, dawdle, idle, saunter, stroll”), possibly influenced by daw (“(Britain, dialectal… The correct English form is dawdle, spelled D-A-W-D-L-E.
Definition
- 1Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
- 2To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
- 3To move or walk lackadaisically.
Etymology
The verb is possibly: * a variant of daddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk or work slowly, dawdle, saunter, trifle”) or doddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk feebly or slowly, dawdle, idle, saunter, stroll”), possibly influenced by daw (“(Britain, dialectal) lazy, good-for-nothing person, sluggard”); or * borrowed from Middle Low German dȫdelen (“to dawdle”), related to Saterland Frisian döädelje (“to dawdle”); compare also German daddeln (“to play”), German verdaddeln (“to waste (time), neglect, ruin”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin. The noun is derived from the verb.
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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Using “dawdle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-A-W-D-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɔːdl̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.