dolevsdoxConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#18,808
“dole” frequency rank
#49,882
“dox” frequency rank
68690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dole dox
Definition To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource. plural of doc

Letter map: dole vs dox

Shared letters muted; letters that set dole and dox apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against dox's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
dole
3 ch
dox

Part-of-speech tell for dole / dox

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dole is averb and doxanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dole is recorded at frequency rank #18,808, classified as averb, pronounced /dəʊl/. dox is at rank #49,882, tagged as anoun.

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 68690, this pair ranks #57,762 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dole vs dox

Shared letters: do. Private to "dole": el. Private to "dox": x.

"dole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dole ← ddole · dloe · doel · dolle · odle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dole" and "dox" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dole" is a verb and "dox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dole" vs "dox" - which ranks higher?
"dole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,808 in our English list, against #49,882 for "dox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dole" and "dox".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,762 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dole" and "dox" 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 #57,762 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