dolly
/ˈdɑli/
"dolly" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dolly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,108 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,108
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A doll.
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 | dolly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɑli/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #14,108 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dolly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dolly is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɑli/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,108 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for dolly, with forms such as "ddolly", "dloly", and "dollyy". 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, "dull", "duly", "dory", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for appl… The correct English form is dolly, spelled D-O-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1A doll.
- 2A roughly cylindrical wooden object used as a base when molding pie crust.
- 3A contrivance for stirring:
- 4A contrivance for stirring:
- 5A tool with an indented head for shaping the head of a rivet.
- 6In pile driving, a block interposed between the head of the pile and the ram of the driver.
- 7A small truck with a single wide roller used for moving heavy beams, columns, etc., in bridge building.
- 8A small truck without means of steering, to be slipped under a load.
- 9An unpowered vehicle (trailer) designed for connection to a tractor unit, truck or prime mover vehicle, with strong traction power.
- 10A compact, narrow-gauge locomotive used for moving construction trains, switching, etc.
- 11A specialized piece of film equipment resembling a little cart on which a camera is mounted.
- 12A young woman, especially one who is frivolous or vapid.
- 13A fashionable young woman, one who follows the latest music or clothing fashions.
- 14A ball hit by a batsman such that it goes gently to a fielder for a simple catch.
- 15A marker placed on the winning number by the dealer at roulette.
- 16Ellipsis of dolly shop.
- 17An old gambling device, found in dolly shops, with the figure of an old man or "dolly", and a spiral hole down which a dropped marble would proceed to one of a set of numbered holes.
Etymology
From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddolly,dloly,dollyy,doly,dolyl,odlly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dolly - 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 “dolly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-O-L-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɑli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dull” - see the side-by-side comparison. dolly vs dull
- 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.