English homophones

done/Donne/dun/Dunn/Dunne

"done" is an adjective; "Donne" is a name - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #2 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "done" arrives as an adjective, while "Donne" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "don" then splits - "done" (4 letters) vs "Donne" (5).
No shared spelling stem: "done" is 4 letters, "dun" is 3; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "done" is 4 letters, "Dunn" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "done" is 4 letters, "Dunne" is 5; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "Donne" is 5 letters, "dun" is 3; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "Donne" is 5 letters, "Dunn" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "Donne" is 5 letters, "Dunne" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Shared stem "dun" then splits - "dun" (3 letters) vs "Dunn" (4).
Shared stem "dun" then splits - "dun" (3 letters) vs "Dunne" (5).
Shared stem "dunn" then splits - "Dunn" (4 letters) vs "Dunne" (5).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across done, Donne, dun, Dunn, Dunne: dn. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

done
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory deno · private eo
Donne
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory deno · private eo
dun
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory dnu · private u
Dunn
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory dnu · private u
Dunne
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory denu · private eu

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "done" when you mean: Having completed or finished an activity.
Write "Donne" when you mean: A surname, notably held by John Donne, English poet
Write "dun" when you mean: A brownish grey colour.
Write "Dunn" when you mean: A surname from Irish.
Write "Dunne" when you mean: A surname from Irish.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

done ← ddone · dnoe · doen · odne
Donne ← ddonne · dnone · donen · odnne
Dunn ← ddunn · dnun · udnn
Dunne ← ddunne · dnune · dunen · udnne

Each spelling

done

adjective · /dʌn/ · #236 frequency

Having completed or finished an activity.

Donne

name · /dʌn/ · #39,301 frequency

A surname, notably held by John Donne, English poet

dun

noun · /dʌn/ · #18,810 frequency

A brownish grey colour.

Dunn

name · /dʌn/ · #11,689 frequency

A surname from Irish.

Dunne

name · /dʌn/ · #27,820 frequency

A surname from Irish.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 5-spelling cluster (done, Donne, dun, Dunn, Dunne). Here's where to go from here.

"done" is the most frequent headword in this 5-spelling cluster (rank #236 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 5 spellings ranks #2 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 5-spelling cluster: Kane · cane · Cain · Kaine · kain. Nearby cluster
Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.