DNF
"dnf" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“DNF” is an uncommon English word, ranked #56,075 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #56,075
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To fail to finish, as a sporting event or a piece of media.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | DNF |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #56,075 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “DNF” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for DNF is 3 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #56,075 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To fail to finish, as a sporting event or a piece of media.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for DNF -- typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset -- no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is DNF, spelled D-N-F.
Definition
- 1To fail to finish, as a sporting event or a piece of media.
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 “DNF”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-N-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.