ducvsDuftWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,075
“duc” frequency rank
#8,850
“Duft” frequency rank
56925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duc Duft
Definition der Herzog, der Führer ein angenehmer Geruch, der sich verbreitet oder ausgebracht wird; organische oder chemische Verbindung

Where the eye mixes duc and Duft

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

3 ch
duc
4 ch
Duft

Why the eye confuses duc with Duft

A purely visual mix-up. duc ([duk]) and Duft ([dʊft]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duc is recorded at frequency rank #48,075, classified as anoun, pronounced [duk]. Duft is at rank #8,850, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʊft].

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 56925, this pair ranks #921,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duc vs Duft

Shared letters: du. Private to "duc": c. Private to "Duft": ft.

"duc" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Duft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Duftdduft · dfut · dufft · duftt · dutf · udft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duc" for "Duft" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([duk] versus [dʊft]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "duc" vs "Duft" - which ranks higher?
"Duft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,850 in our German list, against #48,075 for "duc". 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 "duc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Duft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #921,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duc" and "Duft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duc vs dusch". 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 #921,397 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