drop a dime on someone
"drop-a-dime-on-someone" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drop a dime on someone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To inform on (a person); to turn someone in.
Corpus desk
Index EN-drop-a-dime-on-someone · drop a dime on someone · English
drop a dime on someone · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-9 9 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | drop a dime on someone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “drop a dime on someone” in English
Rare enough to double-check
drop a dime on someone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To inform on (a person); to turn someone in.".
drop a dime on someone has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Referring to the cost of making a phone call, i.e. to the police. The correct English form is drop a dime on someone, spelled D-R-O-P- -A- -D-I-M-E- -O-N- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1To inform on (a person); to turn someone in.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how drop a dime on someone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It seems somebody has dropped a dime on you guys, and there is nothing more I can do.
Etymology
Referring to the cost of making a phone call, i.e. to the police.
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.