dingbat
/ˈdɪŋbæt/
"dingbat" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dingbat” is an uncommon English word, ranked #98,030 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #98,030
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A silly, crazy or stupid person.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dingbat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɪŋbæt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #98,030 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dingbat” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dingbat is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɪŋbæt/. Corpus data places it at rank #98,030 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dingbat, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles. The correct English form is dingbat, spelled D-I-N-G-B-A-T.
Definition
- 1A silly, crazy or stupid person.
- 2A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc.
- 3An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars.
- 4A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution.
- 5Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else.
- 6A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown.
Etymology
Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles.
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 “dingbat”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-N-G-B-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɪŋbæt/ (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
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.