Which to use
“dirty” is an adjective and “duty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,778
- “dirty” frequency rank
- #21,948
- “duty” frequency rank
- 36726
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dirty | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dreckig, schmutzig | die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht |
Where the eye mixes dirty and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dirty with duty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dirty is [ˈdɜːti] while duty is [ˈdjuːti]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dirty is recorded at frequency rank #14,778, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɜːti]. 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 36726, this pair ranks #1,608,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dirty vs duty
Shared letters: dty. Private to "dirty": ir. Private to "duty": u.
"dirty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dirty" and "duty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dirty" or "duty" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dirty" and "duty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dirty" 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 #1,608,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dirty" 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 #1,608,256 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.