dribs and drabs
"dribs-and-drabs" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dribs and drabs” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A series of negligible amounts.
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See how dribs and drabs compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dribs and drabs |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dribs and drabs” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dribs and drabs is 15 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A series of negligible amounts.".
No misspelling variants are generated for dribs and drabs in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From drib (“a drop”) and drab (“a small amount”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is dribs and drabs, spelled D-R-I-B-S- -A-N-D- -D-R-A-B-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A series of negligible amounts.
Etymology
From drib (“a drop”) and drab (“a small amount”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “dribs and drabs, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/dribs-and-drabs
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Using “dribs and drabs”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-I-B-S- -A-N-D- -D-R-A-B-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: