Which to use
“DOD” is a name and “dour” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,546
- “DOD” frequency rank
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- 68426
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | DOD | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Initialism of United States Department of Defense. | Stern, harsh and forbidding. |
Letter map: DOD vs dour
Shared letters muted; letters that set DOD and dour apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - DOD and dour
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: DOD is aname and douranadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
DOD is recorded at frequency rank #18,546, classified as aname. dour is at rank #49,880, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdʊə/.
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 68426, this pair ranks #58,908 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of DOD vs dour
Shared letters: do. Private to "DOD": -. Private to "dour": ru.
"DOD" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "DOD" for "dour" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "DOD" or "dour" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "DOD" vs "dour" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "DOD" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,908 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "DOD" and "dour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs dox". 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 #58,908 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.