Diligent and Dord Diligent Being "diligent" is characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort on doing something. I am happy to hear from other people that I am diligent. Dord There is no such word as "dord" in the dictionary. Instead, it is considered as a "ghost word" in the second edition of the New Merriam-Webster International Dictionary. It was considered a word with no etymology or usage at all until it was removed from the dictionary in 1947.