Which to use
“Dore” is a name and “dour” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,586
- “Dore” frequency rank
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- 97466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Dore | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A diminutive of the male given name Isidore. | Stern, harsh and forbidding. |
Letter map: Dore vs dour
Shared letters muted; letters that set Dore and dour apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Dore (CVCV) and dour (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for Dore / dour
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Dore is aname and douranadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 97466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Dore is recorded at frequency rank #47,586, classified as aname. dour is at rank #49,880, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdʊə/.
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 97466, this pair ranks #309 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Dore vs dour
Shared letters: dor. Private to "Dore": e. Private to "dour": u.
"Dore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Dore" and "dour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Dore" or "dour"?
After this comparison
Pair "Dore" vs "dour" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "Dore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #309 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Dore" and "dour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour 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 #309 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.