Which to use
“dog's” and “downs” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,759
- “dog's” frequency rank
- #7,914
- “downs” frequency rank
- 20673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dog's | downs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | shortened form of dog's bollocks. | plural of down |
Letter map: dog's vs downs
Shared letters muted; letters that set dog's and downs apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Corpus notes: dog's and downs
dog's and downs are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dog's is recorded at frequency rank #12,759, classified as anoun. downs is at rank #7,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced /daʊnz/.
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 20673, this pair ranks #429,502 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dog's vs downs
Shared letters: dos. Private to "dog's": g. Private to "downs": nw.
"dog's" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "downs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- downs ← ddowns · donws · downns · downss · dowsn · dowwns · dwons · odwns
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dog's" and "downs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dog's" or "downs"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dog's" and "downs".
- Full dictionary entry for "dog's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "downs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,502 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dog's" and "downs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Downie vs downs". 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 #429,502 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.