doughboy
"doughboy" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“doughboy” is uncommon English (frequency #75,815 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,815
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An American infantryman, especially one from World War I.
Corpus desk
Index EN-doughboy · doughboy · English
doughboy · rank #75,815 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,815
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH doucet
Nearest frequency peer: doucet (-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 “doughboy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Dongfeng
Dongfeng
24,189 corpus weight
- dopant
dopant
24,188 corpus weight
- doucet
doucet
24,187 corpus weight
- doughboy
doughboy
24,186 corpus weight
- dramedy
dramedy
24,185 corpus weight
- dreamscape
dreamscape
24,183 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “doughboy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doughboy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #75,815 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “doughboy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
doughboy is uncommon English at frequency #75,815 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for doughboy, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From dough + boy; its use to refer to an infantryman is unknown, but dates from 1847, during the Mexican–American War. The correct English form is doughboy, spelled D-O-U-G-H-B-O-Y.
Definition
- 1An American infantryman, especially one from World War I.
- 2A kind of flour dumpling.
- 3Frybread.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how doughboy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The "dough boys" were loaded into army wagons drawn by mules, and with the cavalry at the flanks the relief column started.
The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!
Etymology
From dough + boy; its use to refer to an infantryman is unknown, but dates from 1847, during the Mexican–American War.
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 "doughboy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).