Which to use
“Doha” is a name and “dour” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,955
- “Doha” frequency rank
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- 72835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Doha | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The capital and largest city of Qatar. | Stern, harsh and forbidding. |
Where the eye mixes Doha and dour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Doha and dour
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Doha is /ˈdəʊ.hɑː/ while dour is /ˈdʊə/. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Doha is recorded at frequency rank #22,955, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈdəʊ.hɑː/. 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 72835, this pair ranks #41,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Doha vs dour
Shared letters: do. Private to "Doha": ah. Private to "dour": ru.
"Doha" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Doha" for "dour" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Doha" vs "dour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Doha" 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 #41,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Doha" 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 #41,662 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.