dobvsdoxTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#44,170
“dob” frequency rank
#49,882
“dox” frequency rank
94052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dob dox
Definition To report a person to someone in authority for a wrongdoing. (For transitive forms see dob in, dob on.) plural of doc

Letter map: dob vs dox

Shared letters muted; letters that set dob and dox apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dob and dox follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
dob
3 ch
dox

Role in the sentence - dob and dox

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dob is averb and doxanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - b in “dob” becomes x in “dox”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94052, 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/. dox is at rank #49,882, 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 94052, this pair ranks #1,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dob vs dox

Shared letters: do. Private to "dob": b. Private to "dox": x.

"dob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dob" and "dox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dob" is a verb and "dox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "dob" or "dox" show up more?
"dob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,170 in our English list, against #49,882 for "dox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "dob" and "dox". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dob" and "dox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs dox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,562 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list