dud
/dʌd/
"dud" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dud” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,251 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #29,251
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile.
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 | dud |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dʌd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #29,251 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dud” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dud is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dʌd/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,251 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dud, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dw", "Dx", "DV", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly bor… The correct English form is dud, spelled D-U-D.
Definition
- 1A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile.
- 2A failure of any kind.
- 3A failure of any kind.
- 4A failure of any kind.
- 5Clothes, now always used in plural form duds.
Etymology
From Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly borrowed from the Old Norse word and related to dýja (“to shake, tremble”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “dud”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dʌd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dw” - see the side-by-side comparison. dud vs dw
- 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.