Which to use
“duc” and “dust” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,075
- “duc” frequency rank
- #45,871
- “dust” frequency rank
- 93946
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duc | dust |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der Herzog, der Führer | Staub |
Where the eye mixes duc and dust
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duc runs 3 letters (CVC) against dust's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses duc with dust
A purely visual mix-up. duc ([duk]) and dust ([dʌst]) 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 93946, 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]. dust is at rank #45,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʌst].
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 93946, this pair ranks #19,662 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of duc vs dust
Shared letters: du. Private to "duc": c. Private to "dust": st.
"duc" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dust ← ddust · dsut · dusst · dustt · duts · udst
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duc" for "dust" ever safe?
Frequency check: "duc" vs "dust" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "duc" and "dust" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "duc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,662 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duc" and "dust" 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 #19,662 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.