doctorsvsdoorsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,728
“doctors” frequency rank
#2,786
“doors” frequency rank
5514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doctors doors
Definition plural of doctor plural of door

Where the eye mixes doctors and doors

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
doctors
5 ch
doors

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. doctors (/ˈdɑktɚz/) and doors (/dɔːz/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doctors is recorded at frequency rank #2,728, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɑktɚz/. doors is at rank #2,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɔːz/.

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 5514, this pair ranks #515,037 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of doctors vs doors

Shared letters: dors. Private to "doctors": ct. Private to "doors": -.

"doctors" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "doors" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doctorsdcotors · ddoctors · docctors · docotrs · doctorrs · doctorss · doctosr · doctros
  • doorsddoors · doorrs · doorss · doosr · doros · dors

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doctors" and "doors" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɑktɚz/ versus /dɔːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "doctors" or "doors"?
"doctors" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,728 in our English list, against #2,786 for "doors". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list