dolevsdozeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“dole” and “doze” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,808
“dole” frequency rank
#44,749
“doze” frequency rank
63557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dole doze
Definition To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource. To sleep lightly or briefly; to nap, snooze.

Where the eye mixes dole and doze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dole
4 ch
doze

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. dole (/dəʊl/) and doze (/doʊz/) 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 a single letter - l in “dole” becomes z in “doze”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63557, 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/. doze is at rank #44,749, tagged as averb, pronounced /doʊz/.

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 63557, this pair ranks #82,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dole vs doze

Shared letters: deo. Private to "dole": l. Private to "doze": z.

"dole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "doze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doleddole · dloe · doel · dolle · odle
  • dozeddoze · doez · dozze · dzoe · odze

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dole" and "doze" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dəʊl/ versus /doʊz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dole" or "doze"?
"dole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,808 in our English list, against #44,749 for "doze". 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