drugvsDungConfusable pair

Quick tell: drug is a verb, Dung is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“drug” is a verb and “Dung” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,692
“drug” frequency rank
#45,866
“Dung” frequency rank
84558
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drug Dung
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs drag ein Gemisch von Fäkalien zum Fördern des Wachstums von (Nutz-)Pflanzen

Where the eye mixes drug and Dung

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. drug (CCVC) and Dung (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
drug
4 ch
Dung

Visual trap between drug and Dung

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drug is [dɹʌɡ] while Dung is [dʊŋ]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drug is recorded at frequency rank #38,692, classified as averb, pronounced [dɹʌɡ]. Dung is at rank #45,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʊŋ].

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 84558, this pair ranks #121,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of drug vs Dung

Shared letters: dgu. Private to "drug": r. Private to "Dung": n.

"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Dung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug
  • Dung ← ddung · dnug · dugn · dungg · dunng · udng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drug" and "Dung" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drug" is a verb and "Dung" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "drug" or "Dung"?
"drug" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,692 in our German list, against #45,866 for "Dung". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "drug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,838 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drug" and "Dung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duch vs Dung". 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 #121,838 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