DockvsdowConfusable pair

Quick tell: Dock is a noun, dow is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Dock” is a noun and “dow” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,364
“Dock” frequency rank
#19,541
“dow” frequency rank
45905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dock dow
Definition Becken oder schwimmender Hohlkörper aus Stahl zur Trockenlegung von Schiffen, an denen Außenarbeiten erforderlich sind sehr schwerhörig oder gehörlos

Letter map: Dock vs dow

Shared letters muted; letters that set Dock and dow apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Dock
3 ch
dow

Part-of-speech tell for Dock / dow

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Dock is anoun and dowanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dock is recorded at frequency rank #26,364, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɔk]. dow is at rank #19,541, tagged as anadj.

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 45905, this pair ranks #1,337,167 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dock vs dow

Shared letters: do. Private to "Dock": ck. Private to "dow": w.

"Dock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dow" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dockdcok · ddock · docck · dockk · dokc · odck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dock" and "dow" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dock" is a noun and "dow" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Dock" or "dow"?
"dow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,541 in our German list, against #26,364 for "Dock". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Dock" vs "dow" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,337,167 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dock" and "dow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dock vs Docks". 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 #1,337,167 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