Skip to main content
PlainSpell

dull

/dʌl/adjective, verb

dull is spelled D-U-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dull means “Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dull?

Letters4: D-U-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.7 times per million words; the 7,797th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dull?

Dull appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th most frequent word form in the list.

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

How do you pronounce dull?

  • US /dʌl/
  • /dʊl/

As a noun (“A noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an…”): /dʌl/, /dʌl/, /dul/.

Dull has one syllable (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-dull.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-dull.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with dull?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dull from its last stressed vowel (/ʌl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dull

  • duller comparative
  • dullest superlative
  • dul
  • dulle
  • dulls present, singular, he/she/it
  • dulling participle, present
  • dulled participle, past

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

What does dull mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

    All these knives are dull.

  2. 2

    Boring; not exciting or interesting.

    He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.

  3. 3

    Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

    Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.

  4. 4

    Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.

  5. 5

    Sluggish, listless.

  6. 6

    Bored, depressed, down.

    I felt dull all day.

  7. 7

    Cloudy, overcast.

    It's a dull day.

  8. 8

    Insensible; unfeeling.

verb

  1. 1

    To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

    Years of misuse have dulled the tools.

  2. 2

    To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

    He drinks to dull the pain.

  3. 3

    To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

    A razor will dull with use.

  4. 4

    To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

  5. 5

    IrelandarchaicobsoleteTo fish (or snare an animal, especially a fish) with such a noose.

noun

  1. 1

    IrelandarchaicobsoleteA noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an animal, especially a fish.

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

Dull in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchémoussé (lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp), ennuyeux, barbant (boring, not exciting or interesting – see also…), mat, terne (not shiny), sot (not bright or intelligent)
Germanstumpf (lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp), fad, langweilig (boring, not exciting or interesting – see also…), matt (not shiny), blöd (not bright or intelligent), abstumpfen (to render dull)
Portuguesecego, embotado (lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp), entediante, chato, enfadonho, maçante (boring, not exciting or interesting – see also…)
Spanishromo, embotado, enromado (lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp), soso, insulso, desabrido (boring, not exciting or interesting – see also…)

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 dull come from?

From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-West Germanic *dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, from earlier *dwulaz, a variant of *dwalaz (“stunned, mad, foolish, misled”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-, *dʰewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”).

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

What to look up after dull