"dingbat" meaning in All languages combined

See dingbat on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈdɪŋbæt/ [US] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dingbat.wav Forms: dingbats [plural]
Etymology: Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown Head templates: {{en-noun}} dingbat (plural dingbats)
  1. (informal) A silly, crazy or stupid person. Tags: informal Categories (topical): People Synonyms: dingus Translations (silly, crazy or stupid person): Knallkopf [masculine] (German), Knalltüte [feminine] (German), débil mental (Spanish), idiota (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-YXmBusJ0 Disambiguation of People: 38 6 0 12 0 44 Disambiguation of 'silly, crazy or stupid person': 97 0 0 1 0 2
  2. (typography) A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc. Categories (topical): Typography
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-2-t4WbfG Topics: media, publishing, typography
  3. (architecture) An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars. Categories (topical): Architecture
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-oLUqAktx Topics: architecture
  4. A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution. Categories (topical): People Synonyms: rebus
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-BghbBhLQ Disambiguation of People: 38 6 0 12 0 44 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with German translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 5 8 22 30 23 12 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 4 8 20 35 24 9 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 7 12 38 26 13 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 2 4 24 39 26 5 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 4 9 19 34 19 15 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 2 13 17 42 18 10
  5. (slang) Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-9HY42DKP
  6. A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown. Categories (topical): People Synonyms: dingus, thingamabob, doohickey, thingy
    Sense id: en-dingbat-en-noun-0333LVNg Disambiguation of People: 38 6 0 12 0 44
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: dingbatter, dingbattery, dingbatty, Webdings, Wingdings Related terms: dingwad, ding, fleuron, wingding

Inflected forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dingbatter"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dingbattery"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dingbatty"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "Webdings"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "Wingdings"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dingbats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dingbat (plural dingbats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dingwad"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "ding"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "fleuron"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "wingding"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 6 0 12 0 44",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1978, John Irving, chapter 2, in World according to Garp:",
          "text": "'Midge was such a dingbat', Jenny Fields wrote in her autobiography, 'that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War Two.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:",
          "text": "I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, The Gilmore Girls, season 4, episode 7 (television production):",
          "text": "The fire department is out here because some dingbat parked in the red zone.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A silly, crazy or stupid person."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-YXmBusJ0",
      "links": [
        [
          "silly",
          "silly"
        ],
        [
          "crazy",
          "crazy"
        ],
        [
          "stupid",
          "stupid"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A silly, crazy or stupid person."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dingus"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "97 0 0 1 0 2",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Knallkopf"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 0 0 1 0 2",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Knalltüte"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 0 0 1 0 2",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
          "word": "débil mental"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 0 0 1 0 2",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
          "word": "idiota"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Typography",
          "orig": "en:Typography",
          "parents": [
            "Printing",
            "Writing",
            "Industries",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Business",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Social sciences",
            "Fundamental",
            "Sciences"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1982, The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists, Arthur Plotnik, p.8",
          "text": "\"The compulsive editor, when checking the specs on an article, can't help checking also for such items as initial capital and closing dingbat, if they are used routinely. These decorative items have a way of being forgotten...\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-2-t4WbfG",
      "links": [
        [
          "typography",
          "typography"
        ],
        [
          "ornamental",
          "ornamental"
        ],
        [
          "typographical",
          "typographical"
        ],
        [
          "symbol",
          "symbol"
        ],
        [
          "bullet",
          "bullet"
        ],
        [
          "arrow",
          "arrow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(typography) A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "typography"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Architecture",
          "orig": "en:Architecture",
          "parents": [
            "Applied sciences",
            "Art",
            "Sciences",
            "Culture",
            "All topics",
            "Society",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-oLUqAktx",
      "links": [
        [
          "architecture",
          "architecture"
        ],
        [
          "architectural",
          "architectural"
        ],
        [
          "apartment",
          "apartment"
        ],
        [
          "storey",
          "storey"
        ],
        [
          "overhang",
          "overhang"
        ],
        [
          "parking",
          "parking"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(architecture) An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "architecture"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "5 8 22 30 23 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 8 20 35 24 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 7 12 38 26 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "2 4 24 39 26 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 9 19 34 19 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "2 13 17 42 18 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 6 0 12 0 44",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, Georgia Holleran, Ian Gilbert, A Teacher’s Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom:",
          "text": "This can be a dingbat, anagram, word puzzle, riddle or other quick warm-up activity and demonstrates to your students that when they come into your lessons, you get them thinking right away.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Stephen Scoffham, Teaching Geography Creatively, page 17:",
          "text": "A dingbat is a kind of picture puzzle. Each picture represents a word, phrase or name, and the picture can often be supplemented with a couple of letters to assist in the guessing.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-BghbBhLQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "word",
          "word"
        ],
        [
          "puzzle",
          "puzzle"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebus"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-9HY42DKP",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 6 0 12 0 44",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown."
      ],
      "id": "en-dingbat-en-noun-0333LVNg",
      "links": [
        [
          "device",
          "device"
        ],
        [
          "gadget",
          "gadget"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dingus"
        },
        {
          "word": "thingamabob"
        },
        {
          "word": "doohickey"
        },
        {
          "word": "thingy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪŋbæt/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dingbat.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Dingbats (board game)"
  ],
  "word": "dingbat"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "dingbatter"
    },
    {
      "word": "dingbattery"
    },
    {
      "word": "dingbatty"
    },
    {
      "word": "Webdings"
    },
    {
      "word": "Wingdings"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dingbats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dingbat (plural dingbats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dingwad"
    },
    {
      "word": "ding"
    },
    {
      "word": "fleuron"
    },
    {
      "word": "wingding"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1978, John Irving, chapter 2, in World according to Garp:",
          "text": "'Midge was such a dingbat', Jenny Fields wrote in her autobiography, 'that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War Two.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:",
          "text": "I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, The Gilmore Girls, season 4, episode 7 (television production):",
          "text": "The fire department is out here because some dingbat parked in the red zone.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A silly, crazy or stupid person."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "silly",
          "silly"
        ],
        [
          "crazy",
          "crazy"
        ],
        [
          "stupid",
          "stupid"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A silly, crazy or stupid person."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dingus"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Typography"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1982, The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists, Arthur Plotnik, p.8",
          "text": "\"The compulsive editor, when checking the specs on an article, can't help checking also for such items as initial capital and closing dingbat, if they are used routinely. These decorative items have a way of being forgotten...\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "typography",
          "typography"
        ],
        [
          "ornamental",
          "ornamental"
        ],
        [
          "typographical",
          "typographical"
        ],
        [
          "symbol",
          "symbol"
        ],
        [
          "bullet",
          "bullet"
        ],
        [
          "arrow",
          "arrow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(typography) A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "typography"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Architecture"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "architecture",
          "architecture"
        ],
        [
          "architectural",
          "architectural"
        ],
        [
          "apartment",
          "apartment"
        ],
        [
          "storey",
          "storey"
        ],
        [
          "overhang",
          "overhang"
        ],
        [
          "parking",
          "parking"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(architecture) An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "architecture"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, Georgia Holleran, Ian Gilbert, A Teacher’s Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom:",
          "text": "This can be a dingbat, anagram, word puzzle, riddle or other quick warm-up activity and demonstrates to your students that when they come into your lessons, you get them thinking right away.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Stephen Scoffham, Teaching Geography Creatively, page 17:",
          "text": "A dingbat is a kind of picture puzzle. Each picture represents a word, phrase or name, and the picture can often be supplemented with a couple of letters to assist in the guessing.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "word",
          "word"
        ],
        [
          "puzzle",
          "puzzle"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebus"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "device",
          "device"
        ],
        [
          "gadget",
          "gadget"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dingus"
        },
        {
          "word": "thingamabob"
        },
        {
          "word": "doohickey"
        },
        {
          "word": "thingy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪŋbæt/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dingbat.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-dingbat.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Knallkopf"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Knalltüte"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
      "word": "débil mental"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "silly, crazy or stupid person",
      "word": "idiota"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Dingbats (board game)"
  ],
  "word": "dingbat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dingbat meaning in All languages combined (5.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.