didgeridoo
/ˌdɪd͡ʒ.əɹ.iˈduː/
"didgeridoo" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“didgeridoo” is uncommon English (frequency #71,447 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,447
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A musical instrument, endemic to the Top End of Australia, consisting of a long hollowed-out log which, when blown into, produces a low, deep mesmerising drone with sweeping rhythms.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | didgeridoo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌdɪd͡ʒ.əɹ.iˈduː/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #71,447 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “didgeridoo” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
didgeridoo is uncommon English at frequency #71,447 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌdɪd͡ʒ.əɹ.iˈduː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A musical instrument, endemic to the Top End of Australia, consisting of a long hollowed-out log which, when blown into, produces a low, deep mesmerising drone with sweeping rhythms.".
didgeridoo doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Likely onomatopoeic in reference to the sound made by the instrument, or the words spoken into the instrument to play it. The earliest known description of the instrument was in 1829 by Captain Collet Barker, in which it was described as making the sound di… The correct English form is didgeridoo, spelled D-I-D-G-E-R-I-D-O-O.
Definition
- 1A musical instrument, endemic to the Top End of Australia, consisting of a long hollowed-out log which, when blown into, produces a low, deep mesmerising drone with sweeping rhythms.
Etymology
Likely onomatopoeic in reference to the sound made by the instrument, or the words spoken into the instrument to play it. The earliest known description of the instrument was in 1829 by Captain Collet Barker, in which it was described as making the sound didoggerry whoan. In 2002, Lonergan proposed that the term could derive from Irish dúdaire dubh (“black hummer”) or Scottish Gaelic dùdaire dùth (“native piper”), though this seems to be coincidental, since there is no corroborating evidence and the terms would refer to the player (rather than the instrument itself).
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); 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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Using “didgeridoo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-D-G-E-R-I-D-O-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌdɪd͡ʒ.əɹ.iˈduː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.