Which to use
“done” is an adjective and “door” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “done” frequency rank
- #869
- “door” frequency rank
- 1105
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | done | door |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having completed or finished an activity. | A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key. |
Where the eye mixes done and door
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: done vs door
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: done is /dʌn/ while door is /do(ː)ɹ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
done is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/. door is at rank #869, tagged as anoun, pronounced /do(ː)ɹ/.
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 1105, this pair ranks #528,092 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of done vs door
Shared letters: do. Private to "done": en. Private to "door": r.
"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "door" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "done" and "door" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "done" or "door" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "door" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #528,092 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "done" and "door" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "door 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 #528,092 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.