Dilley
"dilley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Dilley” is uncommon English (frequency #87,215 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,215
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname from Old English.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dilley · Dilley · English
Dilley · rank #87,215 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,215
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH Dijkstra
Nearest frequency peer: Dijkstra (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “Dilley”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Dijkstra
Dijkstra
12,787 corpus weight
- Dilley
Dilley
12,786 corpus weight
- disbarment
disbarment
12,785 corpus weight
- discombobul…
discombobulated
12,784 corpus weight
- disfavor
disfavor
12,783 corpus weight
- disinvestme…
disinvestment
12,782 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Dilley” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “Dilley” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Dilley is uncommon English at frequency #87,215 among 3,470 “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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Dilley", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).