domevsdoofTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#23,478
“dome” frequency rank
#4,418
“doof” frequency rank
27896
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dome doof
Definition Kuppel dumm, beschränkt

Where the eye mixes dome and doof

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dome
4 ch
doof

Look-alike desk: dome vs doof

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dome is [dəʊm] while doof is [doːf]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dome is recorded at frequency rank #23,478, classified as anoun, pronounced [dəʊm]. doof is at rank #4,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced [doːf].

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 27896, this pair ranks #1,794,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dome vs doof

Shared letters: do. Private to "dome": em. Private to "doof": f.

"dome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "doof" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • domeddome · dmoe · doem · domme · odme
  • doofddoof · dof · dofo · dooff · odof

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dome" for "doof" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dome" is a noun and "doof" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dome" or "doof" show up more?
"doof" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,418 in our German list, against #23,478 for "dome". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doof" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,794,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dome" and "doof" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dome vs dörr". 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 #1,794,018 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