Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

rubber duck

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.92 in modern English

Syllables: rub-ber -duck
IPA

21

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

3

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A toy, made from rubber or rubber-like plastic, shaped like a duck; usually a floating bathtub toy.

noun

An inflatable boat.

Slang

verb

To act as a sounding board for a programmer that is debugging their code, facilitating rubber duck debugging.

Transitive verb

Example Sentences

"Around midday on Saturday, Warrnambool's main beach was evacuated when a volunteer from Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club was thrown into the ocean from an inflatable rescue boat (IRB), often referred to as a rubber duck."

Etymology

From rubber + duck. The verb sense is derived from the noun one; see rubber duck debugging for more information on its etymology.

Usage

Inflected Forms

rubber ducks (plural) rubber ducks (present, singular) rubber ducking (participle, present) rubber ducked (participle, past) rubber ducked (past)

Phrases

rubber duck debugging rubber ducking rubber ducky rubber duckie unsinkable rubber duck

Frequently Paired Words

ducking rubberduck rubber-duck

Synonyms

rubber ducky rubber duckie

Questions

What does rubber duck mean?: A toy, made from rubber or rubber-like plastic, shaped like a duck; usually a floating bathtub toy.
Where does rubber duck come from?: From rubber + duck. The verb sense is derived from the noun one; see rubber duck debugging for more information on its etymology.

How to pronounce rubber duck

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