decvsduckWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dec is a abbrev, duck is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dec” is an abbrev and “duck” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,469
“dec” frequency rank
#17,855
“duck” frequency rank
58324
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dec duck
Definition Abkürzung für den Monat december; Dezember 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ducken

Letter map: dec vs duck

Shared letters muted; letters that set dec and duck apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dec runs 3 letters (CVC) against duck's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dec
4 ch
duck

Role in the sentence - dec and duck

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dec is anabbrev and duckaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58324, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dec is recorded at frequency rank #40,469, classified as anabbrev. duck is at rank #17,855, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʊk].

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 58324, this pair ranks #867,205 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dec vs duck

Shared letters: cd. Private to "dec": e. Private to "duck": ku.

"dec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "duck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duck ← dcuk · dduck · ducck · duckk · dukc · udck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dec" and "duck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dec" is an abbrev and "duck" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dec" vs "duck" - which ranks higher?
"duck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,855 in our German list, against #40,469 for "dec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "dec" and "duck". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #867,205 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dec" and "duck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dec vs duch". 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 #867,205 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