dey
/deɪ/noun, pronoun, interjection
dey is spelled D-E-Y: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dey means “A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dey is deys.
How many letters and syllables are in dey?
| Letters | 3: D-E-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dey?
Dey appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th 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).
How do you pronounce dey?
- UK /deɪ/
As an interjection (“An informal Tamil-language term of address used when trying…”): [ˈde(ː)], /deɪ/.
Dey has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Words people confuse with dey
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with dey?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dey from its last stressed vowel (/eɪ/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dye, yed.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of dey
- deys plural
- dai
- dei
- deye
- deh
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dey mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
ScotlandUKA servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.
- 2
The ruler of the Regency of Algiers (now Algeria) under the Ottoman Empire.
interjection
- 1
An informal Tamil-language term of address used when trying to get someone's attention.
pronoun
- 1
Pronunciation spelling of their, representing African-American Vernacular English.
- 2
Pronunciation spelling of there, representing African-American Vernacular English or Caribbean English.
- 3
Pronunciation spelling of they, representing dialects with th-stopping in English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does dey come from?
From Middle English deye, deie, daie, from Old English dǣġe (“maker of bread; baker; dairy-maid”), from Proto-West Germanic *daigijā, from Proto-Germanic *daigijǭ (“kneader of bread, maid”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, build”). Cognate with Swedish deja, Icelandic deigja (“dairy-maid”); compare dairy, dough, lady.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).