dive
/daɪv/
"dive" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dive” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,875 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #5,875
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To swim under water.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /daɪv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,875 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dive” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dive is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /daɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,875 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for dive, with forms such as "ddive", "diev", and "divve". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "DV", "due", "DVD", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English diven, duven, from the merger of Old English dȳfan (“to dip, immerse”, transitive weak verb) (from Proto-Germanic *dūbijaną) and dūfan (“to duck, dive, sink, penetrate”, intransitive strong verb) (past participle ġedofen). Cognate with I… The correct English form is dive, spelled D-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1To swim under water.
- 2To jump into water head-first.
- 3To jump headfirst toward the ground or into another substance.
- 4To descend sharply or steeply.
- 5To lose altitude quickly by pointing downwards, as with a bird or aircraft.
- 6To undertake with enthusiasm.
- 7To deliberately fall down after a challenge, imitating being fouled, in the hope of getting one's opponent penalised.
- 8To leap while fielding to take a brilliant catch which usually results in a wicket and appreciation.
- 9To cause to descend, dunk; to plunge something into water.
- 10To explore by diving; to plunge into.
- 11To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.
Etymology
From Middle English diven, duven, from the merger of Old English dȳfan (“to dip, immerse”, transitive weak verb) (from Proto-Germanic *dūbijaną) and dūfan (“to duck, dive, sink, penetrate”, intransitive strong verb) (past participle ġedofen). Cognate with Icelandic dýfa (“to dip, dive”), Low German bedaven (“covered, covered with water”). See also deep, dip.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddive,diev,divve,dvie,idve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dive - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “dive”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /daɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “DV” - see the side-by-side comparison. dive vs DV
- 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.