Which to use
“doon” and “down” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,338
- “doon” frequency rank
- #137
- “down” frequency rank
- 45475
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doon | down |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Down. | From a higher position to a lower one; downwards. |
Where the eye mixes doon and down
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: doon vs down
A purely visual mix-up. doon (/duːn/) and down (/daʊn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - o in “doon” becomes w in “down”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doon is recorded at frequency rank #45,338, classified as anadv, pronounced /duːn/. down is at rank #137, tagged as anadv, pronounced /daʊn/.
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 45475, this pair ranks #220,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of doon vs down
Shared letters: dno. Private to "doon": -. Private to "down": w.
"doon" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "down" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doon" and "down" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "doon" or "down" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "doon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "down" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #220,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doon" and "down" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doon 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 #220,941 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.