dung
/ˈdʌŋ/
"dung" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dung” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #21,502 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,502
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Manure; animal excrement.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dung |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdʌŋ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #21,502 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dung” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dung is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdʌŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #21,502 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for dung, with forms such as "ddung", "dnug", and "dugn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "duo", "dup", "dur", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dung, dunge, donge, from Old English dung (“dung; excrement; manure”), from Proto-West Germanic *dungu, from Proto-Germanic *dungō (“dung”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”). Superseded non-native Middle English fen (“dung,… The correct English form is dung, spelled D-U-N-G.
Definition
- 1Manure; animal excrement.
- 2A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.
Etymology
From Middle English dung, dunge, donge, from Old English dung (“dung; excrement; manure”), from Proto-West Germanic *dungu, from Proto-Germanic *dungō (“dung”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”). Superseded non-native Middle English fen (“dung, excrement, filth”), from Old French fien, fiente (“dung, manure”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddung,dnug,dugn,dungg,dunng,udng
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dung - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “dung”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdʌŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “duo” - see the side-by-side comparison. dung vs duo
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.