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PlainSpell

double

doub·le/ˈdʌb.əl/adjective, adverb, noun, verb

double is spelled D-O-U-B-L-E, 2 syllables: doub·le. The wrong spelling people search most is doulbe: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 370 of all searches for the word. Double is an adjective meaning “Made up of two matching or complementary elements”.

How many letters and syllables are in double?

Letters6: D-O-U-B-L-E
Syllables2: doub·le
In writing102 times per million words; the 1,048th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, doulbe, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell double?

Double is spelled D-O-U-B-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 365 of the searches for double in either form.

doublethe right spelling7,270 searches a month
doulbeb and l swapped20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is double?

Double appears 102 times per million words in written English, the 1,048th 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 double?

  • US /ˈdʌb.əl/
  • US [ˈdʌb.ɫ̩]

Double has 2 syllables, split doub·le in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-double.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-double.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with double?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as double from its last stressed vowel (/ʌbəl/):

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 double

  • doubles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • doubling participle, present
  • doubled participle, past
  • doublés plural

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

What does double mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Made up of two matching or complementary elements.

    The closet has double doors.

  2. 2

    Of twice the quantity.

    Give me a double serving of mashed potatoes.

  3. 3

    Of a family relationship, related on both the maternal and paternal sides of a family.

    He's my double cousin as my mother's sister married my father's brother.

  4. 4

    Designed for two (people, cars, etc.).

    a double room

  5. 5

    Folded in two; composed of two layers.

  6. 6

    Stooping; bent over.

  7. 7

    Having two aspects; ambiguous.

    a double meaning

  8. 8

    False, deceitful, or hypocritical.

    a double life

adverb

  1. 1

    Twice over; twofold; doubly.

    February 7 1736, Jonathan Swift, letter to Alexander Pope I was double their age.

  2. 2

    Two together; two at a time.

    When I met the twins, I thought I was seeing double.

  3. 3

    Into two halves or sections.

    The old man was bent double under his heavy burden.

noun

  1. 1

    Twice the number, amount, size, etc.

    I did double his sales this month.

  2. 2

    A person who resembles and stands in for another person, often for safety purposes

    Saddam Hussein was rumored to have many doubles.

  3. 3

    A drink with two portions of alcohol.

    On second thought, make that a double.

  4. 4

    Two shifts of work back to back.

    I work a double this weekend.

  5. 5

    A ghostly apparition of a living person; a doppelgänger.

  6. 6

    A sharp turn, especially a return on one's own tracks.

  7. 7

    A redundant item for which an identical item already exists.

    I have more than 200 stamps in my collection but they're not all unique: some are doubles.

  8. 8

    A two-base hit.

    The catcher hit a double to lead off the ninth.

verb

  1. 1

    To multiply by two.

    The company doubled their earnings per share over last quarter.

  2. 2

    To increase by 100%, to become twice as large in size.

    Our earnings have doubled in the last year.

  3. 3

    To be the double of; to exceed by twofold; to contain or be worth twice as much as.

  4. 4

    To fold over so as to make two folds.

    To make a pleat, double the material at the waist.

  5. 5

    To clench (a fist).

  6. 6

    To get a two-base hit.

    The batter doubled into the corner.

  7. 7

    To join or couple.

  8. 8

    To repeat exactly; copy.

noun

as doublé
  1. 1

    A compound attack that deceives the opponent's attempted circular parry.

noun

as Double
  1. 1

    USCollectively, both the Indianapolis 500, a day race, and the Coca-Cola 600, an evening race, both of which are run on Memorial Day weekend Sunday. Used concerning racers who (wish[/ed/ing] to) participat[e/ed/ing] in both events, typically using a private jet to travel between Indianapolis, Indiana, after the 500 and Charlotte, North Carolina, to get to the 600.

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

How do you abbreviate double?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of double: dbl.

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

Double in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdouble (made up of two matching or complementary…), sosie (a person resembling or standing for another), doublon (redundant item for which an identical item…), doubler ((transitive) to multiply by two)
Germandoppelt (made up of two matching or complementary…), Doppelgänger (a person resembling or standing for another), doppel- (designed for two), doppellagig, zweilagig (folded in two; composed of two layers), Doppelte (twice the number or size etc)
Portugueseduplo (made up of two matching or complementary…), sósia (a person resembling or standing for another), dobrar, duplicar ((transitive) to multiply by two), dobro (twice the quantity)
Spanishdoble (made up of two matching or complementary…), duplicar ((transitive) to multiply by two), duplo, dúplex, duplado (disused), duplicado (twice the quantity)

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 double come from?

From Middle English double, from Old French doble, double, from Latin duplus (“twofold”). Doublet of doppio and duple.

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

What to look up after double