dentifrice
den·ti·frice/ˈdɛn.tɪˌfrɪs/noun
dentifrice is a noun meaning “Toothpaste or any other substance, such as a powder or liquid, for cleaning the teeth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-N-T-I-F-R-I-C-E and has 3 syllables (den·ti·frice), and it appears about once in every 44 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of dentifrice is dentifrices.
What does dentifrice mean?
noun
- 1
Toothpaste or any other substance, such as a powder or liquid, for cleaning the teeth.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce dentifrice?
- /ˈdɛn.tɪˌfrɪs/
Dentifrice has 3 syllables, split den·ti·frice in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of dentifrice
- dentifrices plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is dentifrice?
Dentifrice appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Dentifrice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any substance for cleaning the teeth:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dentifrice |
| Portuguese | dentifrício, dentífrico |
| Spanish | dentífrico |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dentifrice come from?
From Middle English dentifricie, from Latin dentifricium (“powder for rubbing the teeth”), from dens (“tooth”) + fricāre (“to rub”). Compare French dentifrice.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).