dodovsdoneWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dodo is a noun, done is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dodo” is a noun and “done” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,624
“dodo” frequency rank
#236
“done” frequency rank
33860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dodo done
Definition A large, flightless bird, †Raphus cucullatus, related to the pigeon, that is now extinct (since the 1600s) and was native to Mauritius. Having completed or finished an activity.

Where the eye mixes dodo and done

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

4 ch
dodo
4 ch
done

Look-alike desk: dodo vs done

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dodo is /ˈdəʊdəʊ/ while done is /dʌn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dodo is recorded at frequency rank #33,624, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdəʊdəʊ/. done is at rank #236, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/.

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 33860, this pair ranks #325,766 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dodo vs done

Shared letters: do. Private to "dodo": -. Private to "done": en.

"dodo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dododdodo · ddoo · doddo · dood · oddo
  • doneddone · dnoe · doen · odne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dodo" for "done" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dodo" is a noun and "done" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "dodo" or "done" show up more?
"done" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #236 in our English list, against #33,624 for "dodo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dodo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "done" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,766 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dodo" and "done" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dodo 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 #325,766 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