dingus
/ˈdɪŋɡəs/noun
dingus is spelled D-I-N-G-U-S: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 69,055th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dingus means “A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dingus is dinguses.
How many letters and syllables are in dingus?
| Letters | 6: D-I-N-G-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 69,055th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is dingus?
Dingus appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 69,055th 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 dingus?
- /ˈdɪŋɡəs/
Dingus has 2 syllables (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-dingus.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dingus
- dinguses plural
- dinges
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dingus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
CanadaUSinformalA gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor.
Drill #40 the .094 [2.4 mm] holes in the dingus. Dimple the #40 holes.
- 2
CanadaUSderogatoryinformalA foolish, incompetent, or silly person.
I just lost my keys again. Now I feel like a dingus.
- 3
slangvulgarThe penis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does dingus come from?
Probably of multiple origins. Partially a borrowing from Dutch dinges (“thingamajig, thingy; whatshisname, whatshername”), ding (“thing”). Probably also partially a borrowing from Afrikaans in view of its South African occurrence. The spelling dingus is a pseudo-Latinism to look like a Latin word ending in -us.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).