drudge
/dɹʌd͡ʒ/
"drudge" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drudge” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,431 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,431
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who works in a low servile job.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | drudge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɹʌd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #46,431 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “drudge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for drudge is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɹʌd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,431 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for drudge, with forms such as "ddrudge", "drduge", and "drrudge". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "drug", "dude", "drugs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English druggen, perhaps from Old English *dryċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *druggjan, from Proto-Germanic *drugjaną, a denominative built to a lost noun *drugjaz (preserved in Old English Dryċġhelm), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-; compare… The correct English form is drudge, spelled D-R-U-D-G-E.
Definition
- 1A person who works in a low servile job.
- 2Someone who works for (and may be taken advantage of by) someone else.
Etymology
From Middle English druggen, perhaps from Old English *dryċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *druggjan, from Proto-Germanic *drugjaną, a denominative built to a lost noun *drugjaz (preserved in Old English Dryċġhelm), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-; compare Old English drēogan (“to do; to suffer”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddrudge,drduge,drrudge,druddge,drudeg,drudgge,drugde,durdge,rdudge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of drudge - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “drudge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-U-D-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɹʌd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “drug” - see the side-by-side comparison. drudge vs drug
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.