dulcet

/ˈdʌl.sɪt/adjective

dulcet is spelled D-U-L-C-E-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 85,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dulcet means “Sweet, especially when describing voice or tones; melodious” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dulcet?

Letters	6: D-U-L-C-E-T
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	about once in every 8 million words; the 85,266th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is dulcet?

Dulcet appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 85,266th most frequent word form in the list.

dulcet0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dulcet?

US /ˈdʌl.sɪt/
US /ˈdʌl.sət/

Dulcet has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-dulcet.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does dulcet mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Sweet, especially when describing voice or tones; melodious.
Matthew "MattKC" Wong (actor) (2024), 6s from the start, in I ported THOUSANDS of apps to Windows 95: “Ah, yes, the dulcet tones of Windows 95.”
2
Generally pleasing; agreeable.
3
archaicSweet to the taste.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dulcet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	suave (sweet (voice, tone), melodious)
German	wohlklingend, melodisch, lieblich (sweet (voice, tone), melodious), angenehm, beruhigend, lind (generally pleasing, soothing, agreeable)
Spanish	dulce (sweet (voice, tone), melodious)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dulcet come from?

From Middle English doucet, from Old French doucet, from dulz, dulce (“sweet, pleasant”) + diminutive -et, from Latin dulcis (“sweet, pleasant”). Cognate with Spanish dulce, French doux, Italian dolce, Portuguese doce, and Romanian dulce. Doublet of dolcetto and doucet.