donavsdozeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#31,142
“dona” frequency rank
#44,749
“doze” frequency rank
75891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dona doze
Definition Alternative form of donah. To sleep lightly or briefly; to nap, snooze.

Letter map: dona vs doze

Shared letters muted; letters that set dona and doze apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dona and doze follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dona
4 ch
doze

Grammar separator: dona vs doze

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dona is anoun and dozeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dona is recorded at frequency rank #31,142, classified as anoun. 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 75891, this pair ranks #31,739 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dona vs doze

Shared letters: do. Private to "dona": an. Private to "doze": ez.

"dona" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "doze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dona ← ddona · dnoa · doan · odna
  • doze ← ddoze · doez · dozze · dzoe · odze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dona" for "doze" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dona" is a noun and "doze" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dona" or "doze"?
"dona" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,142 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.

After this comparison

You've compared "dona" and "doze". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dona" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,739 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dona" and "doze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs doze". 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 #31,739 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