dugong
/ˈduɡɑŋ/
"dugong" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dugong” is uncommon English (frequency #96,960 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,960
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the species Dugong dugon, found in tropical regions.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dugong · dugong · English
dugong · rank #96,960 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #96,960
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH dropsy
Nearest frequency peer: dropsy (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “dugong”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- drat
drat
3,046 corpus weight
- dreamless
dreamless
3,045 corpus weight
- dropsy
dropsy
3,042 corpus weight
- dugong
dugong
3,041 corpus weight
- dulcinea
dulcinea
3,039 corpus weight
- Dumaguete
Dumaguete
3,038 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “dugong” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dugong |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈduɡɑŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #96,960 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dugong” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dugong is uncommon English at frequency #96,960 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈduɡɑŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
dugong has no tracked misspelling variants, 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: Etymology tree Proto-Austronesian *duyuŋ Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *duyuŋ Cebuano dugongbor. English dugong Borrowed from Cebuano dugong. The correct English form is dugong, spelled D-U-G-O-N-G.
Definition
- 1A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the species Dugong dugon, found in tropical regions.
- 2Any animal of the family Dugongidae, of which the monotypic genus Dugong is the only extant kind.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dugong appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The Ceylong dugong is an extraordinary and interesting animal which is often seen on the coast. It is plentiful in and about the Gulf of Manaar, and resembles somewhat a huge, thickly-made, bluff-headed seal.
“What are those things that aren’t seals? Much worse than seals. Big, blubbery things. Dugongs.”
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Austronesian *duyuŋ Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *duyuŋ Cebuano dugongbor. English dugong Borrowed from Cebuano dugong.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dugong", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).