doofus
/ˈduːfəs/
"doofus" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“doofus” is uncommon English (frequency #52,902 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,902
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person with poor judgment and taste; a foolish or silly person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-doofus · doofus · English
doofus · rank #52,902 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,902
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH doodling
Nearest frequency peer: doodling (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “doofus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- disquiet
disquiet
47,103 corpus weight
- doodling
doodling
47,100 corpus weight
- doofus
doofus
47,099 corpus weight
- dotty
dotty
47,098 corpus weight
- downbeat
downbeat
47,097 corpus weight
- downforce
downforce
47,096 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “doofus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doofus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈduːfəs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #52,902 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “doofus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
doofus is uncommon English at frequency #52,902 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈduːfəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person with poor judgment and taste; a foolish or silly person.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for doofus, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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: Perhaps an alteration of earlier goofus (first attested in the 1920s), due to influence from Scots doof (“simpleton”). Scots doof is derived from Low German doof (“deaf", with a secondary sense of "idiotic, stupid”). The Low Saxon word is cognate with Engli… The correct English form is doofus, spelled D-O-O-F-U-S.
Definition
- 1A person with poor judgment and taste; a foolish or silly person.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how doofus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Stocks Genius or Dot-Com Doofus? – Wired News
Danny is such a doofus!
Etymology
Perhaps an alteration of earlier goofus (first attested in the 1920s), due to influence from Scots doof (“simpleton”). Scots doof is derived from Low German doof (“deaf", with a secondary sense of "idiotic, stupid”). The Low Saxon word is cognate with English deaf. Some have proposed that perhaps dupe played some kind of role in the development of doofus as well.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "doofus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).