Durden
"durden" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Durden” is uncommon English (frequency #65,078 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,078
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname.
Corpus desk
Index EN-durden · Durden · English
Durden · rank #65,078 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,078
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH dux
Nearest frequency peer: dux (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “Durden”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- dumpy
dumpy
34,927 corpus weight
- Dunleavy
Dunleavy
34,926 corpus weight
- Dunstable
Dunstable
34,925 corpus weight
- Durden
Durden
34,923 corpus weight
- dux
dux
34,922 corpus weight
- ecclesia
ecclesia
34,920 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Durden” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Durden |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #65,078 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Durden” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Durden is uncommon English at frequency #65,078 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname.".
Durden has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is Durden, spelled D-U-R-D-E-N.
Definition
- 1A surname.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Durden appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We tend to think of the seafloor a few kilometres down as a flat plain. In fact, about two-thirds of this “abyssal” seabed is made up of gentle rolling hills a few hundred metres high, says Jennifer Durden at the University of Southampton, UK.
Edward Norton's character is the conformist, emasculated, consumerist beta male while his alter ego of sorts, Durden, is the countercultural alpha because he is free from needing or being controlled by women.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Durden", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).