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PlainSpell

dig

/dɪɡ/verb, noun

dig is spelled D-I-G: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, dig means “To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dig?

Letters3: D-I-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 dig?

Dig appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th 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 dig?

  • /dɪɡ/

As a noun (“Digoxin”): /dɪd͡ʒ/.

Dig 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). Recordings: En-us-dig.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dig

Also written: digg.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with dig?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dig.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: gdi, gid.

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 dig

  • digs present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • digging participle, present
  • dug participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dig mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More generally, to make any similar hole by moving material out of the way.

    They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.

  2. 2

    To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up.

    to dig potatoes

  3. 3

    To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.

  4. 4

    USdatedslangTo work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.

  5. 5

    To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up.

    to dig up evidence

  6. 6

    To thrust; to poke.

    He dug an elbow into my ribs and guffawed at his own joke.

  7. 7

    To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball

  8. 8

    datedslangTo understand.

    You dig?

  9. 9

    datedslangTo appreciate, or like.

    Baby, I dig you.

noun

  1. 1

    An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.

  2. 2

    Any act of digging to find or retrieve something.

  3. 3

    A thrust; a poke.

    He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.

  4. 4

    archaicslangA hard blow, especially (boxing) a straight left-hander delivered under the opponent's guard.

  5. 5

    A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.

  6. 6

    An innings.

  7. 7

    A cutting, sarcastic remark.

  8. 8

    The occupation of digging for gold.

  9. 9

    colloquialDigoxin.

    dig toxicity

  10. 10

    obsoleteA duck.

    Powltrey, &c, &c. Item ten turkeys … Item three Digs [an old Cheshire word for duck] and a Drake … Item ffower Capons … [The word's gloss has been inserted by Earwaker]

noun

as DIG
  1. 1

    Initialism of dwarf irregular galaxy.

noun

as dIG
  1. 1

    dwarf irregular galaxy

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dig in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcreuser (to move hard-packed earth out of the way), excaver (get by digging, take up from the ground), fouille (archeological investigation), piger (slang: to understand or show interest in), kiffer (slang: to appreciate, or like)
Germangraben (to move hard-packed earth out of the way), Grabung, Ausgrabung (archeological investigation)
Portuguesecavar, escavar (to move hard-packed earth out of the way), escavação (archeological investigation), curtir, gostar (slang: to appreciate, or like)
Spanishahondar, cavar, ahoyar, escarbar (to move hard-packed earth out of the way), excavación (archeological investigation), picar el interés (slang: to understand or show interest in)

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 dig come from?

From Middle English diggen (“to dig”, 13th c.), an alteration of dīken, from Old English dīcian (“to dig a ditch, mound up earth”), from Proto-West Germanic *dīkōn, which see for cognates. This verb is denominal from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (“pool, puddle; dyke, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stab, dig”). The form with g may have been influenced by Old French *diguer, a variant of dikier, itself from the West Germanic verb above. French forms with g are attested only in the 15th c., thus 200 years later than in English.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dig