Which to use
“dost” and “douse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,957
- “dost” frequency rank
- #47,588
- “douse” frequency rank
- 79545
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dost | douse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | second-person singular simple present indicative of do | To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse. |
Where the eye mixes dost and douse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dost runs 4 letters (CVCC) against douse's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dost and douse
A purely visual mix-up. dost (/dʌst/) and douse (/daʊs/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dost is recorded at frequency rank #31,957, classified as averb, pronounced /dʌst/. 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 79545, this pair ranks #21,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dost vs douse
Shared letters: dos. Private to "dost": t. Private to "douse": eu.
"dost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "douse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dost" and "douse" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dost" vs "douse" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dost" and "douse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dost" 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 #21,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dost" 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 #21,828 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.