dollar
/ˈdɒl.ə/
"dollar" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dollar” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,531 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,531
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.
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 | dollar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɒl.ə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,531 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dollar” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dollar is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɒl.ə/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,531 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for dollar, with forms such as "ddollar", "dlolar", and "dolalr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "dolly", "dollop", "dollars", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested since the mid-16th century, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler (“dollar”), earlier Joachimsthaler, literally “of Joachimstal”, the town where the original dollars were minted. The name means “(Saint) Joachim's valley”, from … The correct English form is dollar, spelled D-O-L-L-A-R.
Definition
- 1Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.
- 2Money generally.
- 3A ringgit, a unit of currency in Malaysia.
- 4A quarter of a pound or one crown, historically minted as a coin of approximately the same size and composition as a then-contemporary dollar coin of the United States, and worth slightly more.
- 5Imported from the United States, and paid for in U.S. dollars. (Note: distinguish "dollar wheat", North American farmers' slogan, meaning a market price of one dollar per bushel.)
- 6A unit of reactivity equal to the interval between delayed criticality and prompt criticality.
Etymology
Attested since the mid-16th century, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler (“dollar”), earlier Joachimsthaler, literally “of Joachimstal”, the town where the original dollars were minted. The name means “(Saint) Joachim's valley”, from Joachim + Tal. Possibly reinforced by the Dutch leeuwendaalder, which was also used in the American colonies. Doublet of taler /thaler and tolar.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddollar,dlolar,dolalr,dolar,dollarr,dollra,odllar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dollar - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “dollar”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-O-L-L-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɒl.ə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dolly” - see the side-by-side comparison. dollar vs dolly
- 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.