Words · Rare
dunned
/dʌnd/ · 6 letters · 4 distinct letters
A form of dun.
- verb
treat cruelly
The children tormented the stuttering teacher
- verb
persistently ask for overdue payment
The grocer dunned his customers every day by telephone
- adjective
of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color
the dun and dreary prairie
- noun
horse of a dull brownish grey color
- noun
a color or pigment varying around a light grey brown color
she wore dun
Word history
History of dun
From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark colored, brownish black”), from Proto West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto Indo European *dʰewh₂ (“to smoke, raise dust”). Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto Celtic *dusnos, from Proto Indo European *dʰews.
From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0
Why this word counts
- Where it comes from
- Listed in the English Speller Database at size 50: the standard list most spell checkers use.
- How common it is
- Too rare to measure in everyday writing.
- In the spelling bee
- Bonus word It’s waiting for an editor’s review because it’s rare in everyday writing. Until then it scores as a bonus word.