doesvsdoorWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#177
“does” frequency rank
#869
“door” frequency rank
1046
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature does door
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of do A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key.

Where the eye mixes does and door

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

4 ch
does
4 ch
door

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: does is /dəz/ while door is /do(ː)ɹ/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

does is recorded at frequency rank #177, classified as averb, pronounced /dəz/. door is at rank #869, tagged as anoun, pronounced /do(ː)ɹ/.

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 1046, this pair ranks #528,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of does vs door

Shared letters: do. Private to "does": es. Private to "door": r.

"does" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "door" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doesddoes · deos · doess · odes
  • doorddoor · doorr · doro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "does" and "door" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "does" is a verb and "door" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "does" or "door"?
"does" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #177 in our English list, against #869 for "door". 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