Which to use
“done” is an adjective and “dow” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “done” frequency rank
- #12,409
- “dow” frequency rank
- 12645
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | done | dow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having completed or finished an activity. | To be worth. |
Where the eye mixes done and dow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: done vs dow
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: done is /dʌn/ while dow is /daʊ/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
done is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/. dow is at rank #12,409, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊ/.
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 12645, this pair ranks #480,346 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of done vs dow
Shared letters: do. Private to "done": en. Private to "dow": w.
"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dow" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- done ← ddone · dnoe · doen · odne
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "done" and "dow" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "done" or "dow"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "done" and "dow" 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 "dow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #480,346 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "done" and "dow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dow 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 #480,346 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.