dayvsdutyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“day” and “duty” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,718
“day” frequency rank
#21,948
“duty” frequency rank
25666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature day duty
Definition der Tag die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht

Where the eye mixes day and duty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
day
4 ch
duty

Visual trap between day and duty

A purely visual mix-up. day ([deɪ]) and duty ([ˈdjuːti]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

day is recorded at frequency rank #3,718, classified as anoun, pronounced [deɪ]. duty is at rank #21,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdjuːti].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 25666, this pair ranks #1,829,824 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of day vs duty

Shared letters: dy. Private to "day": a. Private to "duty": tu.

"day" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dutydduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "day" for "duty" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([deɪ] versus [ˈdjuːti]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "day" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
"day" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,718 in our German list, against #21,948 for "duty". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "day" and "duty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "day" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,829,824 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "day" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duch vs duty". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,829,824 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list