duncan
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "duncan", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "duncan" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "duncan" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
Duncan is aEnglishname. It means: A male given name from Scottish Gaelic anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Donnchadh; the name of two early saints and of two kings of Scotland. Pronounced /ˈdʌŋkən/. It ranks #6,897 in English word frequency. Often confused with Dunn and Duran.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Duncan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /ˈdʌŋkən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,897 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Duncan is 6 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdʌŋkən/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,897 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 24 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Duncan, with forms such as "dduncan", "dnucan", and "ducnan". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "Dunn", "Duran", "Dunham", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: * As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, from Donnchadh, a name composed of donn (“brown”) + cath (“battle”). Also spelled as Donagh and Donaghue, Donahue. * Also as an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Duinnchinn, from donn (“brown”) + ceann (“head”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is Duncan, spelled D-U-N-C-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A male given name from Scottish Gaelic anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Donnchadh; the name of two early saints and of two kings of Scotland.
- 2A Scottish surname originating as a patronymic.
- 3A surname from Irish, a variant of Dinkin.
- 4An Irish surname, a variant of Donegan.
- 5An Irish surname, a variant of Dunican.
- 6An Irish surname, adopted as an anglicization of Ó Donnchadha (whence Donoghue).
- 7A locality in Kangaroo Island council area, South Australia; named for politician John Duncan.
- 8A city in the Regional District of Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, Canada; named for early settler William Chalmers Duncan.
- 9A locale in the United States:
- 10A locale in the United States:
- 11A locale in the United States:
- 12A locale in the United States:
- 13A locale in the United States:
- 14A locale in the United States:
- 15A locale in the United States:
- 16A locale in the United States:
- 17A locale in the United States:
- 18A locale in the United States:
- 19A locale in the United States:
- 20A locale in the United States:
- 21A locale in the United States:
- 22A locale in the United States:
- 23A river in British Columbia, Canada; running 206 km near Mount Dawson into the Kootenay Lake; named for prospector John Duncan.
- 24A short river in the Southern Alps, West Coast Region, New Zealand.
Etymology
* As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, from Donnchadh, a name composed of donn (“brown”) + cath (“battle”). Also spelled as Donagh and Donaghue, Donahue. * Also as an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Duinnchinn, from donn (“brown”) + ceann (“head”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dduncan,dnucan,ducnan,dunacn,duncann,dunccan,duncna,dunncan,udncan
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Duncan
Misspelling Variants of "Duncan"
Frequency rank: #6,897 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: