Which to use
“done” is an adjective and “dose” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “done” frequency rank
- #5,124
- “dose” frequency rank
- 5360
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | done | dose |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having completed or finished an activity. | A measured portion of medicine taken at any one time. |
Where the eye mixes done and dose
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between done and dose
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: done is /dʌn/ while dose is /dəʊs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “done” becomes s in “dose”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
done is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/. dose is at rank #5,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dəʊs/.
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 5360, this pair ranks #515,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of done vs dose
Shared letters: deo. Private to "done": n. Private to "dose": s.
"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "done" and "dose" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "done" vs "dose" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "dose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "done" and "dose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dose 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 #515,631 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.