duck
/dʌk/
"duck" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“duck” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #5,031. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #5,031
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-duck · duck · English
duck · rank #5,031 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,031
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH Egyptian
Nearest frequency peer: Egyptian (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “duck”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- dish
dish
94,973 corpus weight
- Douglas
Douglas
94,972 corpus weight
- duck
duck
94,970 corpus weight
- Egyptian
Egyptian
94,969 corpus weight
- EP
EP
94,968 corpus weight
- evaluation
evaluation
94,967 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “duck” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | duck |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dʌk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,031 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “duck” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around duck (IPA /dʌk/), averb. Corpus frequency is #5,031 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for duck, with forms such as "dcuk", "dduck", and "ducck". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "due", "duo", "dug", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ducken, duken, douken (“to duck, plunge under water, submerge”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck”). Cognates Related to S… The correct English form is duck, spelled D-U-C-K.
Definition
- 1To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
- 2To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.
- 3To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.
- 4To bow.
- 5To evade doing something, especially something considered a responsibility.
- 6To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.
- 7To enter a place for a short moment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how duck appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As some raw youth in country bred, To arms by thirst of honour led, When at a skirmish first he hears The bullets whistling round his ears, Will duck his head aside
Rimmer ducked his body low into his chair, so just his head remained above the table top, and peered past the backs of the examinees in front of him, waiting for the adjudicator to make his move.
Etymology
From Middle English ducken, duken, douken (“to duck, plunge under water, submerge”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck”). Cognates Related to Scots dulk (“to duck”), Middle Dutch ducken (“to duck”), Low German ducken (“to duck”), German ducken (“to duck”), Danish dukke, dykke (“to dive”). Related also to Scots dook, douk (“to bathe, drench, soak, baptise”), West Frisian dûke (“to plunge, dive”), Dutch duiken (“to dive, plunge, duck”), Low German duken (“to duck, dive, stoop”), German tauchen (“to dive, plunge, immerse, duck”), Swedish dyka (“to dive, submerge”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- dcuk
- dduck
- ducck
- duckk
- dukc
- udck
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of duck - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "duck", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "duck". Here's where to go from here.
- "duck" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "due". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #5,031 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "D" letter cohort. D–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.