dunce
/dʌns/noun
dunce is spelled D-U-N-C-E: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dunce means “An unintelligent person” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dunce is dunces.
How many letters and syllables are in dunce?
| Letters | 5: D-U-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 52,954th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is dunce?
Dunce appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,954th 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 dunce?
- /dʌns/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dunce.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dunce
- dunces plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dunce mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An unintelligent person.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dunce in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense unintelligent person:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cancre |
| German | Dummkopf, Schwachkopf, Dämel, Einfaltspinsel, Dummerjan |
| Spanish | tonto de capirote, zopenco, zote, lelo, mentecato, faino |
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 dunce come from?
1530, named after John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Scotus was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker; his followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any person deemed stupid.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).