dobvsdozeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dob” and “doze” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,170
“dob” frequency rank
#44,749
“doze” frequency rank
88919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dob doze
Definition To report a person to someone in authority for a wrongdoing. (For transitive forms see dob in, dob on.) To sleep lightly or briefly; to nap, snooze.

Where the eye mixes dob and doze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dob runs 3 letters (CVC) against doze's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dob
4 ch
doze

Look-alike desk: dob vs doze

A purely visual mix-up. dob (/dɑb/) and doze (/doʊz/) 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 88919, 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/. doze is at rank #44,749, tagged as averb, pronounced /doʊz/.

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 88919, this pair ranks #5,753 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dob vs doze

Shared letters: do. Private to "dob": b. Private to "doze": ez.

"dob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "doze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doze ← ddoze · doez · dozze · dzoe · odze

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dob" and "doze" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɑb/ versus /doʊz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dob" or "doze"?
"dob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,170 in our English list, against #44,749 for "doze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,753 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dob" and "doze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs doze". 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 #5,753 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