# dumpling

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈdʌmp.lɪŋ/ · frequency rank #43,123

## Definitions
1. A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.
2. A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.
3. A term of endearment.
4. A piece of excrement.

## Etymology
A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin:
* perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)),
* or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

## Easily confused with
- **dumping** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dumping-vs-dumpling)
- **duckling** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/duckling-vs-dumpling)

## Common misspellings (13)
`ddumpling`, `dmupling`, `dumlping`, `dummpling`, `dumpilng`, `dumplign`, `dumplingg`, `dumplinng`, `dumplling`, `dumplnig`, `dumppling`, `dupmling`, `udmpling`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/dumpling