dobvsdoorWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dob is a verb, door is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dob” is a verb and “door” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,170
“dob” frequency rank
#869
“door” frequency rank
45039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dob door
Definition To report a person to someone in authority for a wrongdoing. (For transitive forms see dob in, dob on.) A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key.

Where the eye mixes dob and door

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dob
4 ch
door

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dob is /dɑb/ while door is /do(ː)ɹ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dob is recorded at frequency rank #44,170, classified as averb, pronounced /dɑb/. door is at rank #869, tagged as anoun, pronounced /do(ː)ɹ/.

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 45039, this pair ranks #224,998 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dob vs door

Shared letters: do. Private to "dob": b. Private to "door": r.

"dob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "door" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doorddoor · doorr · doro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dob" and "door" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dob" is a verb and "door" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dob" or "door"?
"door" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #869 in our English list, against #44,170 for "dob". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list