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PlainSpell

dope

[doʊp]noun, verb, adjective

dope is spelled D-O-P-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dope means “Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dope is dopes.

How many letters and syllables are in dope?

Letters4: D-O-P-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing7.9 times per million words; the 8,266th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dope?

Dope appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dope?

  • UK [dəʊp]
  • US [doʊp]

Dope has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-dope.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with dope?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dope.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pedo, depo, pode.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dope

  • dopes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • doping participle, present
  • doped participle, past
  • doper comparative
  • dopest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dope mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.

  2. 2

    An absorbent material used to hold a liquid.

  3. 3

    Any varnish used to coat a part, such as an airplane wing or a hot-air balloon in order to waterproof, strengthen, etc.

  4. 4

    slangAny of various recreational substances

  5. 5

    slangAn opiate, now particularly heroin.

  6. 6

    slangMarijuana.

  7. 7

    slangInformation, usually from an inside source, originally in horse racing and other sports.

    What's the latest dope on the stock market?

  8. 8

    Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo affect with drugs.

  2. 2

    To treat with dope (lubricant, etc.).

  3. 3

    To add a dopant such as arsenic to (a pure semiconductor such as silicon).

  4. 4

    To use drugs; especially, to use prohibited performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sporting competitions.

  5. 5

    datedslangTo judge or guess; to predict the result of.

adjective

  1. 1

    slangAmazing; cool.

    That party was dope!

noun

as DOPE
  1. 1

    Acronym of data on previous engagement.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dope in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpatine, sous-couche, cirage, cire, vernis, glaçage (viscous liquid used to prepare a surface)
GermanSchmiere (viscous liquid used to prepare a surface), Aufsaugmittel (absorbent material used to hold a liquid), Stoff (slang: any narcotic), Insiderinfos (slang: inside information), dopen, aufpuschen (slang: affect with drugs)
Spanishdopar (slang: affect with drugs), doparse (slang: use drugs)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dope come from?

From Dutch doop (“thick dipping sauce”), from Dutch dopen (“to dip”), from Middle Dutch dopen, from Old Dutch *dōpen, from Frankish *daupijan, from Proto-Germanic *daupijaną. “Doop” in the sense “narcotic drug” ultimately refers to viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks; “insider information” perhaps from knowing which horse had been doped in a race. Sense of "stupid person" perhaps following from the drug sense (i.e. relating to those intoxicated on opium), compare dope up. Related to English dip and German taufen. Unrelated to dopamine.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dope