dunam
/ˈdʊn.əm/
"dunam" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dunam” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An Ottoman Turkish unit of surface area nominally equal to 1,600 square (Turkish) paces but actually varied at a provincial and local level according to land quality to accommodate its colloquial s...
Corpus desk
Index EN-dunam · dunam · English
dunam · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dunam |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdʊn.əm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dunam” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dunam is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdʊn.əm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
dunam doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Hebrew דּוּנָם (dúnam) or Arabic دُونُم (dūnum), from Turkish dönüm, from dönmek (“to turn”). A probable calque of Byzantine Greek στρέμμα (strémma, “stremma”, literally “that which is turned”). The correct English form is dunam, spelled D-U-N-A-M.
Definition
- 1An Ottoman Turkish unit of surface area nominally equal to 1,600 square (Turkish) paces but actually varied at a provincial and local level according to land quality to accommodate its colloquial sense of the amount of land able to be plowed in a day, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine stremma or English acre.
- 2A modern Turkish unit of surface area equal to a decare (1000 m²), equivalent to the modern Greek stremma.
- 3Various other units in other areas of the former Ottoman Empire, usually equated to the decare but sometimes varying (as in Iraq, where it is 2500 m²).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how dunam appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You pay eight marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons.
Etymology
From Hebrew דּוּנָם (dúnam) or Arabic دُونُم (dūnum), from Turkish dönüm, from dönmek (“to turn”). A probable calque of Byzantine Greek στρέμμα (strémma, “stremma”, literally “that which is turned”).
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.