Dilley
"dilley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Dilley” is uncommon English (frequency #87,215 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,215
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname from Old English.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Dilley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #87,215 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Dilley” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Dilley is uncommon English at frequency #87,215 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Dilley has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly a pet form of an unrecorded Old English personal name *Dylla, found in placenames such as Dillington or Dilton. The correct English form is Dilley, spelled D-I-L-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A surname from Old English.
- 2An unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States.
- 3A city in Frio County, Texas, United States.
Etymology
Possibly a pet form of an unrecorded Old English personal name *Dylla, found in placenames such as Dillington or Dilton.
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 “Dilley”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-L-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.