dirk
/dɝk/noun, verb
dirk is spelled D-I-R-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Dirk, the name). As a noun, dirk means “A long Scottish dagger with a straight blade” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dirk is dirks.
How many letters and syllables are in dirk?
| Letters | 4: D-I-R-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dirk?
Dirk appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Dirk, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dirk?
- UK /dɜːk/
- US /dɝk/
Dirk has one syllable (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-au-dirk.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with dirk
Also written: dork.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with dirk?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dirk from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹk/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of dirk
- dirks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- dirking participle, present
- dirked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dirk mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A long Scottish dagger with a straight blade.
- 2
A ceremonial dagger worn by naval or air force officers in some nations' militaries; formerly, a fighting dagger used by sailors as a boarding weapon.
- 3
datedslangA penis.
The word dick itself serves as model for two variants which are probably Midwestern, dirk and dork, also meaning "penis"...
- 4
datedslangA socially unacceptable person; an oddball.
Near-synonym: dork
verb
- 1
To stab with a dirk.
- 2
obsoleteTo darken.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dirk in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a long Scottish dagger with a straight blade:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dirk come from?
Etymology unknown, apparently from Scots dirk. First attested in 1602 as dork, in the later 17th century as durk. The spelling dirk is due to Johnson's Dictionary of 1755. Early quotations as well as Johnson 1755 suggest that the word is of Scottish Gaelic origin, but no such Gaelic word is known. The Gaelic name for the weapon is biodag. Gaelic duirc is merely an 18th-century adoption of the English word. A possible derivation is from the North Germanic/Scandinavian personal name Dirk (short for Diederik), which is used of lock-picking tools (but not of knives or daggers).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).