dewan
/dəˈwɑːn/
"dewan" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dewan” is uncommon English (frequency #52,891 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,891
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A holder of any of various offices in various (usually Islamic) countries, usually some sort of councillor.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dewan · dewan · English
dewan · rank #52,891 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,891
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH Derwent
Nearest frequency peer: Derwent (-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 “dewan”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Dench
Dench
47,116 corpus weight
- Deptford
Deptford
47,113 corpus weight
- Derwent
Derwent
47,112 corpus weight
- dewan
dewan
47,110 corpus weight
- discipleship
discipleship
47,105 corpus weight
- discontinui…
discontinuity
47,104 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “dewan” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dewan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dəˈwɑːn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #52,891 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dewan” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dewan is uncommon English at frequency #52,891 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /dəˈwɑːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A holder of any of various offices in various (usually Islamic) countries, usually some sort of councillor.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dewan, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Hindi दीवान (dīvān), from Classical Persian دیوَان (dēwān), from Middle Persian dywʾn' (dēwān). Doublet of divan and douane. The correct English form is dewan, spelled D-E-W-A-N.
Definition
- 1A holder of any of various offices in various (usually Islamic) countries, usually some sort of councillor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dewan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At the same time, Rajah Goordass, son of Nuncomar, was appointed dewan to the nabob, whose duties were strictly to be confined to the household, and who was to have nothing to do with the public business or public revenues of Bengal.
On these occasions I often heard him declare that the whole of Europe did not contain ten thousand men, and that as for King George, he was only fit to be a dewan or zamindar under himself.
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindi दीवान (dīvān), from Classical Persian دیوَان (dēwān), from Middle Persian dywʾn' (dēwān). Doublet of divan and douane.
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 "dewan", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).