dotavsdutyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,294
“dota” frequency rank
#21,948
“duty” frequency rank
61242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dota duty
Definition Rückstand der Verbrennung eines Stoffes; Asche die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht

Letter map: dota vs duty

Shared letters muted; letters that set dota and duty apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dota and duty follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dota
4 ch
duty

Corpus notes: dota and duty

dota and duty are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dota is recorded at frequency rank #39,294, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 61242, this pair ranks #757,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dota vs duty

Shared letters: dt. Private to "dota": ao. Private to "duty": uy.

"dota" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dota ← ddota · doat · dotta · dtoa · odta
  • duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dota" and "duty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "dota" or "duty" show up more?
"duty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,948 in our German list, against #39,294 for "dota". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "dota" vs "duty" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dota" 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 #757,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dota" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dota vs puzzles". 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 #757,028 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