dormouse

/ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/

//ˈdɔɹ.maʊs// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"dormouse" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“dormouse” is uncommon English (frequency #96,951 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#96,951
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.

Corpus desk

Index EN-dormouse · dormouse · English

dormouse · rank #96,951 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #96,951
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH dooming

Nearest frequency peer: dooming (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “dormouse”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “dormouse” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for dormouse
PropertyValue
Headworddormouse
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/
Letters8
Frequency rank#96,951
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “dormouse” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).dormouselands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “dooming” (#96,950), “draftee” (#96,954), “distressingly” (#96,947). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dormouse is uncommon English at frequency #96,951 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for dormouse in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dormowse, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a dialectal *dor-, from Old Norse dár (“benumbed”) + mous (“mouse”). More at doze, mouse. The word is sometimes conjectured to come from an Anglo-Norman derivative of Old French dormir (“to sl… The correct English form is dormouse, spelled D-O-R-M-O-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.
  2. 2
    Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.
  3. 3
    Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.
  4. 4
    A person who sleeps a great deal, or who falls asleep readily (by analogy with the sound hibernation of the dormouse).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how dormouse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spir…
  2. Restoration such as this must work around wildlife habitats, and NR came to discover that almost the entire line was a haven for dormice.

Etymology

From Middle English dormowse, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a dialectal *dor-, from Old Norse dár (“benumbed”) + mous (“mouse”). More at doze, mouse. The word is sometimes conjectured to come from an Anglo-Norman derivative of Old French dormir (“to sleep”) (as *dormouse (“tending to be dormant”), with second element mistaken for mouse), but no such Anglo-Norman term is known to have existed.

Synonyms

glirid

This word in other languages

lirón(Español)loir(Français)Bilch(Deutsch)arganaz(Português)

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

How do you spell "dormouse"?
"dormouse" is spelled D-O-R-M-O-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/.
What does "dormouse" mean?
As a noun, "dormouse" means: Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.
How do you pronounce "dormouse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dormouse" is /ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "dormouse"?
From Middle English dormowse, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a dialectal *dor-, from Old Norse dár (“benumbed”) + mous (“mouse”). More at doze, mouse. The word is sometimes conjectured to come from an Anglo-Norman derivative of Old French dorm... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dormouse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Dionysos#96,941dulcinea#96,962Delamere#96,925decorous#96,917

What to do next

You've looked up "dormouse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Usage frequency rank #96,951 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list