DBT

noun

"dbt" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“DBT” is uncommon English (frequency #61,403 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,403
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of dialectical behavior therapy.

Corpus desk

Index EN-dbt · DBT · English

DBT · rank #61,403 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,403
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH declination

Nearest frequency peer: declination (+2 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 “DBT”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “DBT” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for DBT
PropertyValue
HeadwordDBT
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters3
Frequency rank#61,403
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “DBT” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).DBTfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “declination” (#61,405), “defacing” (#61,407), “cussed” (#61,398). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “DBT” is #61,403. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

DBT is uncommon English at frequency #61,403 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for DBT in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is DBT, spelled D-B-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Initialism of dialectical behavior therapy.
  2. 2
    Initialism of dry bulb temperature.
  3. 3
    Initialism of digital breast tomosynthesis.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how DBT appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) in 2011. Given how effectively DBT detects cancer, it may eventually become the new gold standard in breast imaging.

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

How do you spell "DBT"?
"DBT" is spelled D-B-T.
What does "DBT" mean?
As a noun, "DBT" means: Initialism of dialectical behavior therapy.
What language does "DBT" come from?
"DBT" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "DBT", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list