dukevsdustConfusable pair

Quick tell: duke is a particle, dust is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“duke” is a particle and “dust” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,578
“duke” frequency rank
#45,871
“dust” frequency rank
59449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duke dust
Definition - Staub

Letter map: duke vs dust

Shared letters muted; letters that set duke and dust apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
duke
4 ch
dust

Grammar separator: duke vs dust

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: duke is aparticle and dustanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duke is recorded at frequency rank #13,578, classified as aparticle, pronounced […]. 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 59449, this pair ranks #824,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duke vs dust

Shared letters: du. Private to "duke": ek. Private to "dust": st.

"duke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dukedduke · dkue · duek · dukke · udke
  • dustddust · dsut · dusst · dustt · duts · udst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duke" for "dust" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duke" is a particle and "dust" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "duke" vs "dust" - which ranks higher?
"duke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,578 in our German list, against #45,871 for "dust". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "duke" and "dust".

  • Full dictionary entry for "duke" 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 #824,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duke" and "dust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dusch vs dust". 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 #824,116 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