dugong
/ˈduɡɑŋ/
"dugong" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dugong” is an uncommon English word, ranked #96,960 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #96,960
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the species Dugong dugon, found in tropical regions.
| 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) |
Where “dugong” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dugong is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈduɡɑŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #96,960 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.
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.
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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Using “dugong”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-G-O-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈduɡɑŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.