Which to use
“door” is a noun and “dow” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #869
- “door” frequency rank
- #12,409
- “dow” frequency rank
- 13278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | door | dow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key. | To be worth. |
Where the eye mixes door and dow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: door is /do(ː)ɹ/ 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
door is recorded at frequency rank #869, classified as anoun, pronounced /do(ː)ɹ/. 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 13278, this pair ranks #476,749 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of door vs dow
Shared letters: do. Private to "door": r. Private to "dow": w.
"door" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dow" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- door ← ddoor · doorr · doro
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "door" and "dow" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "door" or "dow"?
What to do next
You've compared "door" and "dow". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "door" 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 #476,749 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "door" 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.