dirge
/dɜːdʒ/
"dirge" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dirge” is an uncommon English word, ranked #60,769 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #60,769
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dirge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɜːdʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #60,769 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dirge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dirge is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɜːdʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #60,769 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for dirge, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dirige, from Latin dirige (“steer, direct”), from the beginning of the first antiphon in matins for the dead, Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam. Doublet of dirige. The correct English form is dirge, spelled D-I-R-G-E.
Definition
- 1A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person.
- 2A song or piece of music that is considered too slow, bland or boring.
Etymology
From Middle English dirige, from Latin dirige (“steer, direct”), from the beginning of the first antiphon in matins for the dead, Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam. Doublet of dirige.
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 “dirge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-R-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɜːdʒ/ (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.