dog's letter

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.59 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The letter R, which was trilled in Latin, imitating the sound of a snarling dog.

"R is the Dog's letter, and hurreth in the sound; the tongue striking the inner palate, with a trembling about the teeth."
"R: SOME call this the dog's letter, upon account of its harsh and rough pronunciation;[…]"
"And in this short query the dog's letter, the r, whirred through the air, like the ricket of a pheasant rising;[…]"

Calque of Latin littera canīna.

How to pronounce dog's letter

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “dog's letter”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “dog's letter”.

Repeat and practice — Say “dog's letter” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.