Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sitting duck

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.12 in modern English

Syllables: sit-ting -duck
IPA

19

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An obvious, vulnerable target.

Example Sentences

"For God's sake, Sergeant, we need to get to cover – we're sitting ducks out here."
"[Now that the last gay bathhouse has closed] the AIDS Action Committee will no longer have all of those sitting ducks to reach with education"
"Joker: We're sitting ducks out here. I have to try to lose them in the debris field!"
"The soldiers were sitting ducks, sent forth by Russian commanders to act essentially as human cannon fodder in an assault."

Inflected Forms

sitting ducks (plural)

Phrases

blood in the water dead duck easy mark easy target lame duck

Frequently Paired Words

blood in the water dead duck easy mark easy target lame duck

Synonyms

easy mark

Questions

What does sitting duck mean?: An obvious, vulnerable target.

How to pronounce sitting duck

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “sitting duck”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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Repeat and practice — Say “sitting duck” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.