Which to use
“dose” is a noun and “douse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,124
- “dose” frequency rank
- #47,588
- “douse” frequency rank
- 52712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dose | douse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A measured portion of medicine taken at any one time. | To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse. |
Where the eye mixes dose and douse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dose with douse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dose is /dəʊs/ while douse is /daʊs/. 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 52712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dose is recorded at frequency rank #5,124, classified as anoun, pronounced /dəʊs/. douse is at rank #47,588, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊs/.
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 52712, this pair ranks #154,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dose vs douse
Shared letters: deos. Private to "dose": -. Private to "douse": u.
"dose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "douse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dose" and "douse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "dose" or "douse" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dose" and "douse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs douse". 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 #154,826 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.