Which to use
“donut” is a noun and “doubt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,318
- “donut” frequency rank
- #1,333
- “doubt” frequency rank
- 20651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | donut | doubt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative spelling of doughnut. | To be undecided about; to lack confidence in; to disbelieve, to question. |
Where the eye mixes donut and doubt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: donut is /ˈdəʊnʌt/ while doubt is /daʊt/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
donut is recorded at frequency rank #19,318, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdəʊnʌt/. doubt is at rank #1,333, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊt/.
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 20651, this pair ranks #429,636 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of donut vs doubt
Shared letters: dotu. Private to "donut": n. Private to "doubt": b.
"donut" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "doubt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC