Which to use
“duck” is a verb and “dun” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,855
- “duck” frequency rank
- #37,461
- “dun” frequency rank
- 55316
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duck | dun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ducken | im Zustand nach Genuss von zu viel Alkohol |
Where the eye mixes duck and dun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duck runs 4 letters (CVCC) against dun's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: duck vs dun
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duck is [dʊk] while dun is [duːn]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duck is recorded at frequency rank #17,855, classified as averb, pronounced [dʊk]. dun is at rank #37,461, tagged as anadj, pronounced [duːn].
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 55316, this pair ranks #984,340 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duck vs dun
Shared letters: du. Private to "duck": ck. Private to "dun": n.
"duck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- duck ← dcuk · dduck · ducck · duckk · dukc · udck
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "duck" and "dun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "duck" or "dun" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "duck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #984,340 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duck" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dun vs duran". 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 #984,340 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.