DuttvsdutyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,540
“Dutt” frequency rank
#21,948
“duty” frequency rank
55488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dutt duty
Definition zu einem Knoten geflochtenes Haar am Hinterkopf die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht

Where the eye mixes Dutt and duty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Dutt
4 ch
duty

Look-alike desk: Dutt vs duty

A purely visual mix-up. Dutt ([dʊt]) 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 differ by a single letter - t in “Dutt” becomes y in “duty”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dutt is recorded at frequency rank #33,540, classified as anoun, pronounced [dʊt]. 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 55488, this pair ranks #977,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dutt vs duty

Shared letters: dtu. Private to "Dutt": -. Private to "duty": y.

"Dutt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Duttddutt · dtut · dut · udtt
  • dutydduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Dutt" for "duty" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([dʊt] versus [ˈdjuːti]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Dutt" or "duty"?
"duty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,948 in our German list, against #33,540 for "Dutt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Dutt" 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 #977,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dutt" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duch vs Dutt". 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 #977,605 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