dental floss

noun

"dental-floss" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“dental floss” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A cord of thin filaments used to clean the gaps between the teeth.

Key facts for dental floss
PropertyValue
Headworddental floss
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “dental floss” sits in English frequency

dental floss falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dental floss is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for dental floss in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is dental floss, spelled D-E-N-T-A-L- -F-L-O-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A cord of thin filaments used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
  2. 2
    Extremely skimpy clothing.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dental floss"?
"dental floss" is spelled D-E-N-T-A-L- -F-L-O-S-S.
What does "dental floss" mean?
As a noun, "dental floss" means: A cord of thin filaments used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
What language does "dental floss" come from?
"dental floss" 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.

Using “dental floss”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is D-E-N-T-A-L- -F-L-O-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list