DünevsDungWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,081
“Düne” frequency rank
#45,866
“Dung” frequency rank
93947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Düne Dung
Definition Hügel aus zusammengewehtem Sand (an Küsten und in Trockengebieten) ein Gemisch von Fäkalien zum Fördern des Wachstums von (Nutz-)Pflanzen

Where the eye mixes Düne and Dung

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

4 ch
Düne
4 ch
Dung

Why the eye confuses Düne with Dung

A purely visual mix-up. Düne ([ˈdyːnə]) and Dung ([dʊŋ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Düne is recorded at frequency rank #48,081, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdyːnə]. Dung is at rank #45,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʊŋ].

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 93947, this pair ranks #19,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Düne vs Dung

Shared letters: dn. Private to "Düne": . Private to "Dung": gu.

"Düne" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Dung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dungddung · dnug · dugn · dungg · dunng · udng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Düne" for "Dung" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdyːnə] versus [dʊŋ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Düne" vs "Dung" - which ranks higher?
"Dung" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,866 in our German list, against #48,081 for "Düne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Düne" and "Dung" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Düne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Düne" and "Dung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dudes vs Düne". 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 #19,655 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