doily
/ˈdɔɪli/
"doily" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“doily” is uncommon English (frequency #83,194 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,194
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small ornamental piece of lace or linen or paper used to protect a surface from scratches by hard objects such as vases or bowls; or to decorate a plate of food.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doily |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɔɪli/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #83,194 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “doily” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
doily is uncommon English at frequency #83,194 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdɔɪli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for doily in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Doiley, the name of a 17th-century London draper. The surname is Anglo-Norman, from d'Œuilly, name of several places in Calvados, from Old French oeil (“eye”). The correct English form is doily, spelled D-O-I-L-Y.
Definition
- 1A small ornamental piece of lace or linen or paper used to protect a surface from scratches by hard objects such as vases or bowls; or to decorate a plate of food.
- 2A similar circular piece of lace worn as a head-covering by some married Jewish women.
- 3An old kind of woollen material.
Etymology
From Doiley, the name of a 17th-century London draper. The surname is Anglo-Norman, from d'Œuilly, name of several places in Calvados, from Old French oeil (“eye”).
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 “doily”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-O-I-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɔɪli/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.