donkey's years
"donkey-s-years" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“donkey's years” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A long time, years and years.
Corpus desk
Index EN-donkey-s-years · donkey's years · English
donkey's years · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | donkey's years |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “donkey's years” in English
Rare enough to double-check
donkey's years is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A long time, years and years.".
donkey's years has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Likely directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years.https://wordhistories.net/2016/06/30/donkeys-years/ The correct English form is donkey's years, spelled D-O-N-K-E-Y-'-S- -Y-E-A-R-S.
Definition
- 1A long time, years and years.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how donkey's years appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Didn't you ask him how long it had been in his possession? I can't recollect that. I might have done so. Didn't he say for years and years and donkey's years?
With a heavy make-up, you’ll be the cutest vamp I’ve seen in donkey's years.
Etymology
1876 or earlier. Possibly chosen because donkeys can be long-lived animals. Likely directly related to donkey's ears, a less frequently used rhyming slang term for years.https://wordhistories.net/2016/06/30/donkeys-years/
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.