Which to use
“dust” and “duty” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,871
- “dust” frequency rank
- #21,948
- “duty” frequency rank
- 67819
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dust | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Staub | die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht |
Where the eye mixes dust and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dust (CVCC) and duty (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between dust and duty
A purely visual mix-up. dust ([dʌst]) and duty ([ˈdjuːti]) 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 67819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dust is recorded at frequency rank #45,871, classified as anoun, pronounced [dʌst]. duty is at rank #21,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdjuːti].
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 67819, this pair ranks #527,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dust vs duty
Shared letters: dtu. Private to "dust": s. Private to "duty": y.
"dust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dust" and "duty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dust" or "duty" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dust" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #527,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dust" and "duty" 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 #527,766 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.