you don't say
"you-don-t-say" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“you don't say” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Really?; no kidding!; is that so? (sometimes used sarcastically in response to the obvious)
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | you don't say |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “you don't say” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
you don't say is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Really?; no kidding!; is that so? (sometimes used sarcastically in response to the obvious)".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for you don't say, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is you don't say, spelled Y-O-U- -D-O-N-'-T- -S-A-Y.
Definition
- 1Really?; no kidding!; is that so? (sometimes used sarcastically in response to the obvious)
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
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Using “you don't say”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Y-O-U- -D-O-N-'-T- -S-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.