dogvsDurWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,051
“dog” frequency rank
#10,455
“Dur” frequency rank
22506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dog Dur
Definition fleischfressendes Säugetier der Gattung Canis Tongeschlecht einer Klangverbindung, deren Charakteristikum eine große Terz im Verhältnis zum Grundton ist

Where the eye mixes dog and Dur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
dog
3 ch
Dur

Why the eye confuses dog with Dur

A purely visual mix-up. dog ([dɒɡ]) and Dur ([duːɐ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dog is recorded at frequency rank #12,051, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɒɡ]. Dur is at rank #10,455, tagged as anoun, pronounced [duːɐ̯].

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 22506, this pair ranks #1,873,346 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dog vs Dur

Shared letters: d. Private to "dog": go. Private to "Dur": ru.

"dog" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dog" for "Dur" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dɒɡ] versus [duːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dog" or "Dur"?
"Dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,455 in our German list, against #12,051 for "dog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,873,346 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dog" and "Dur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dog vs dörr". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,873,346 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