dostvsdownConfusable pair

Quick tell: dost is a verb, down is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dost” is a verb and “down” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,957
“dost” frequency rank
#137
“down” frequency rank
32094
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dost down
Definition second-person singular simple present indicative of do From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.

Where the eye mixes dost and down

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dost
4 ch
down

Visual trap between dost and down

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dost is /dʌst/ while down is /daʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32094, 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/. 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 32094, this pair ranks #340,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dost vs down

Shared letters: do. Private to "dost": st. Private to "down": nw.

"dost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "down" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dostddost · dosst · dostt · dsot · odst
  • downddown · donw · downn · dowwn · dwon · odwn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dost" and "down" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dost" is a verb and "down" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dost" vs "down" - which ranks higher?
"down" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #137 in our English list, against #31,957 for "dost". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dost" and "down" 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 "down" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dost" and "down" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dost 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 #340,662 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list