dun
/dʌn/noun, adjective, verb, interjection
dun is spelled D-U-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dun means “A brownish grey colour” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dun is duns.
How many letters and syllables are in dun?
| Letters | 3: D-U-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dun?
Dun appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th 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 dun?
- /dʌn/
- /dʊn/
Dun 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-dun.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with dun
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: Dunn, Dunne, done (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: doon.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with dun?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dun.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: und.
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 dun
- duns plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- dunning participle, present
- dunned participle, past
- doon
- dún
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dun mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A brownish grey colour.
- 2
A collector of debts, especially one who is insistent and demanding.
- 3
An urgent request or demand of payment.
- 4
A newly hatched, immature mayfly; a mayfly subimago.
- 5
A fly made to resemble the mayfly subimago.
- 6
An ancient or medieval fortification; especially a hill-fort in Scotland or Ireland.
- 7
A structure in the Orkney or Shetland islands or in Scotland consisting of a roundhouse surrounded by a circular wall; a broch.
- 8
A mound or small hill.
- 9
Alternative form of dhoon (“Himalayan valley”).
adjective
- 1
Of a brownish grey colour.
verb
- 1
To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
Of all he had received from Lady Bellaston, not above five guineas remained and that very morning he had been dunned by a tradesman for twice that sum.
- 2
To harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.
- 3
datedTo cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
interjection
- 1
Imitating a deep bass note, such as that found in suspenseful music.
noun
- 1
a state legislative assembly
- 2
a state legislative assembly seat
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dun in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | brun grisâtre , brun gris |
| German | Graubraun , graubraun, falb |
| Portuguese | pardo , cobrar |
| Spanish | pardo |
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 dun come from?
From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).