Skip to main content
PlainSpell

dust

/dʌst/noun, verb

dust is spelled D-U-S-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dust means “Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dust is dusts.

How many letters and syllables are in dust?

Letters4: D-U-S-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing26 times per million words; the 3,558th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dust?

Dust appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th 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 dust?

  • /dʌst/
  • /dʊst/

Dust has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Exilexi-dust.wav, En-us-dust.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with dust?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dust.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: stud.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dust

  • dusts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • dusting participle, present
  • dusted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dust mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, fiber debris, dead skin cells, etc.

  2. 2

    Any substance reduced to fine particles; powder.

  3. 3

    Submicron particles in outer space, largely silicates and carbon compounds, that contribute greatly to extinction at visible wavelengths.

  4. 4

    Disintegration of a solid, like silica.

  5. 5

    AustraliadatedslangFlour.

  6. 6

    obsoleteA single fine, dry particle of earth or other material; grain of dust.

  7. 7

    The act of cleaning by dusting.

  8. 8

    The act of sprinkling dust, or a sprinkle of dust itself.

verb

  1. 1

    To remove dust from.

    The cleaning lady needs a stool to dust the cupboard.

  2. 2

    To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.

    Dusting always makes me cough.

  3. 3

    archaicTo make dusty, to soil with dust.

  4. 4

    Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.

  5. 5

    To spray or cover (something) with fine powder or liquid, to sprinkle.

    The mother dusted her baby’s bum with talcum powder.

  6. 6

    To sprinkle (a substance) in the form of dust.

  7. 7

    USslangTo leave quickly; to rush off.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo drink up quickly; to toss off.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate dust?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of dust: DFM.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dust in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpoussière (fine, dry particles), épousseter ((intransitive) to clean by removing dust), pulvériser (to spray something with fine powder or liquid)
GermanStaub (fine, dry particles), entstauben, abstauben ((intransitive) to clean by removing dust), ein Sandbad nehmen, sandbaden (of a bird, to cover itself in sand)
Portuguesepó, poeira (fine, dry particles), desempoar ((intransitive) to clean by removing dust), empoar (to spray something with fine powder or liquid)
Spanishpolvo (fine, dry particles), desempolvar, limpiar el polvo ((intransitive) to clean by removing dust), espolvorear (to spray something with fine powder or liquid), sobrebarrer ((transitive) to remove dust from)

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 dust come from?

From Middle English dust, doust, from Old English dūst (“dust, dried earth reduced to powder; other dry material reduced to powder”), from the fusion of Proto-Germanic *dustą (“dust”) and *dunstą (“mist, dust, evaporation”), both from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dust