Which to use
“done” is an adjective and “donut” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “done” frequency rank
- #19,318
- “donut” frequency rank
- 19554
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | done | donut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having completed or finished an activity. | Alternative spelling of doughnut. |
Where the eye mixes done and donut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: done vs donut
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: done is /dʌn/ while donut is /ˈdəʊnʌt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
done is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/. donut is at rank #19,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdəʊnʌt/.
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 19554, this pair ranks #437,372 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of done vs donut
Shared letters: dno. Private to "done": e. Private to "donut": tu.
"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "donut" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "done" and "donut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "done" or "donut"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "done" and "donut" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,372 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "done" and "donut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donut vs dour". 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 #437,372 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.