dogvsDusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,051
“dog” frequency rank
#19,874
“Dus” frequency rank
31925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dog Dus
Definition fleischfressendes Säugetier der Gattung Canis Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Du

Where the eye mixes dog and Dus

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

3 ch
dog
3 ch
Dus

Why the eye confuses dog with Dus

A purely visual mix-up. dog ([dɒɡ]) and Dus ([duːs]) 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 31925, 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]. Dus is at rank #19,874, tagged as anoun, pronounced [duːs].

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 31925, this pair ranks #1,718,274 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dog vs Dus

Shared letters: d. Private to "dog": go. Private to "Dus": su.

"dog" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Dus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dog" and "Dus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([dɒɡ] versus [duːs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dog" or "Dus"?
"dog" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,051 in our German list, against #19,874 for "Dus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,718,274 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dog" and "Dus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dus vs dusch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,718,274 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