dumb
/dʌm/
"dumb" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dumb” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,788 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,788
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
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 | dumb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /dʌm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,788 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dumb” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dumb is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dʌm/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,788 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for dumb, with forms such as "ddumb", "dmub", and "dubm". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "duo", "dun", "dup", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk… The correct English form is dumb, spelled D-U-M-B.
Definition
- 1Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
- 2Not talkative; taciturn or unwilling to speak.
- 3Having no input or voice in running things.
- 4Unaccompanied by words or speech, silent, wordless.
- 5Not producing any sound, silent.
- 6Stupid.
- 7Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
- 8Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
- 9Not equipped with intelligent behavior or processing capabilities of its own.
- 10Lacking brightness or clearness as a colour; dim, dull.
Etymology
From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on. Cognates Cognate with Scots dumb (“dumb, silent”), North Frisian dom, domme (“dumb, stupid”), West Frisian dom (“dumb, stupid”), Dutch dom (“dumb, stupid”), German dumm (“dumb, stupid”), Danish dum (“stupid”), Swedish dum (“stupid”), Icelandic dumbur (“dumb, mute”). See also deaf.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddumb,dmub,dubm,dumbb,dummb,udmb
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dumb - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “dumb”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-M-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dʌm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “duo” - see the side-by-side comparison. dumb vs duo
- 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.