Which to use
“done” is an adjective and “dun” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #236
- “done” frequency rank
- #18,810
- “dun” frequency rank
- 19046
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | done | dun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having completed or finished an activity. | A brownish grey colour. |
Same sound, different letters: done vs dun
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.
Homophone desk: done vs dun
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: done and dun carry the same recorded pronunciation, /dʌn/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
done is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as anadj, pronounced /dʌn/. dun is at rank #18,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌn/.
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 19046, this pair ranks #440,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of done vs dun
Shared letters: dn. Private to "done": eo. Private to "dun": u.
"done" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- done ← ddone · dnoe · doen · odne
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "done" for "dun" ever safe?
Which is more common, "done" or "dun"?
What to do next
"done" and "dun" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "done" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #440,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "done" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dun". 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 #440,850 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.