Which to use
“darby” and “dobby” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,229
- “darby” frequency rank
- #45,337
- “dobby” frequency rank
- 68566
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | darby | dobby |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A specialized tool used to smooth and level the surface of wet concrete, consisting of a stiff wedge or triangle of wood or metal. | A device in some looms that allows the weaving of small geometric patterns. |
Letter map: darby vs dobby
Shared letters muted; letters that set darby and dobby apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. darby and dobby follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Corpus notes: darby and dobby
darby and dobby are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
darby is recorded at frequency rank #23,229, classified as anoun. dobby is at rank #45,337, tagged as anoun.
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 68566, this pair ranks #58,337 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of darby vs dobby
Shared letters: bdy. Private to "darby": ar. Private to "dobby": o.
"darby" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "dobby" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "darby" and "dobby" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "darby" or "dobby" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "darby" vs "dobby" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "darby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dobby" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,337 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "darby" and "dobby" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dobby vs downy". 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 #58,337 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.