Which to use
“deed” and “dud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,352
- “deed” frequency rank
- #29,251
- “dud” frequency rank
- 39603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deed | dud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An action or act; something that is done. | A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile. |
Where the eye mixes deed and dud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between deed and dud
A purely visual mix-up. deed (/diːd/) and dud (/dʌd/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deed is recorded at frequency rank #10,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /diːd/. dud is at rank #29,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌd/.
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 39603, this pair ranks #275,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of deed vs dud
Shared letters: d. Private to "deed": e. Private to "dud": u.
"deed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dud" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- deed ← ddeed · dede · deedd · eded
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "deed" and "dud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "deed" or "dud" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "deed" and "dud" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "deed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deed" and "dud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dud". 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 #275,173 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.