Which to use
“does” and “douse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #177
- “does” frequency rank
- #47,588
- “douse” frequency rank
- 47765
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | does | douse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of do | To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse. |
Where the eye mixes does and douse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: does vs douse
A purely visual mix-up. does (/dəz/) and douse (/daʊs/) 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 47765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
does is recorded at frequency rank #177, classified as averb, pronounced /dəz/. douse is at rank #47,588, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊs/.
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 47765, this pair ranks #199,414 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of does vs douse
Shared letters: deos. Private to "does": -. Private to "douse": u.
"does" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "douse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "does" and "douse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "does" or "douse"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "does" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,414 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "does" and "douse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs douse". 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 #199,414 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.