water dog

noun

"water-dog" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“water dog” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A retriever type of gun dog bred to flush and retrieve game from water.

Corpus desk

Index EN-water-dog · water dog · English

water dog · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "W" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for water dog
PropertyValue
Headwordwater dog
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “water dog” in English

water dogranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

water dog is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for water dog, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is water dog, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    A retriever type of gun dog bred to flush and retrieve game from water.
  2. 2
    Synonym of seadog (“a sailor accustomed to the sea”).

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how water dog appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Jim Bowes, in fact, looked like what he was — a rough old water-dog, who had grown gray and shaggy amidst the winds and waves, without ever troubling himself about the other shore that bounds the sea of life.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "water dog"?
"water dog" is spelled W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-G.
What does "water dog" mean?
As a noun, "water dog" means: A retriever type of gun dog bred to flush and retrieve game from water.
What language does "water dog" come from?
"water dog" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list