Digby
/ˈdɪɡ.bi/
"digby" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Digby” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,418 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #37,418
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A suburb of Exeter, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX9591).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Digby |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɪɡ.bi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #37,418 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Digby” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Digby is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɪɡ.bi/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,418 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Digby, with forms such as "ddigby", "dgiby", and "dibgy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "DIY", "digs", "digi", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old English dīc (“dyke”) + Old Norse býr (“settlement”). The town in Nova Scotia is named after admiral Robert Digby (1732 - 1815). The correct English form is Digby, spelled D-I-G-B-Y.
Definition
- 1A suburb of Exeter, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX9591).
- 2A village and civil parish in North Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF0854).
- 3A town in Nova Scotia, Canada.
- 4A village in Victoria, Australia.
- 5A habitational surname from Old English.
- 6A male given name transferred from the surname.
- 7A barony in the peerage of Ireland.
Etymology
From Old English dīc (“dyke”) + Old Norse býr (“settlement”). The town in Nova Scotia is named after admiral Robert Digby (1732 - 1815).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddigby,dgiby,dibgy,digbby,digbyy,diggby,digyb,idgby
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Digby - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "Digby"?
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Using “Digby”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-G-B-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɪɡ.bi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “DIY” - see the side-by-side comparison. Digby vs DIY
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.