ducvsdummConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#48,075
“duc” frequency rank
#1,472
“dumm” frequency rank
49547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duc dumm
Definition der Herzog, der Führer schwach an Verstand, ohne Intelligenz, ohne Können, unwissend

Where the eye mixes duc and dumm

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

3 ch
duc
4 ch
dumm

Look-alike desk: duc vs dumm

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duc is [duk] while dumm is [dʊm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49547, 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]. dumm is at rank #1,472, tagged as anadj, pronounced [dʊm].

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 49547, this pair ranks #1,207,386 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duc vs dumm

Shared letters: du. Private to "duc": c. Private to "dumm": m.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dummddumm · dmum · dum · udmm

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "duc" and "dumm" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duc" is a noun and "dumm" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "duc" or "dumm" show up more?
"dumm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,472 in our German list, against #48,075 for "duc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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 "dumm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,207,386 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duc" and "dumm" 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 #1,207,386 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