Which to use
“Dougherty” is a name and “doughty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,113
- “Dougherty” frequency rank
- #35,694
- “doughty” frequency rank
- 71807
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Dougherty | doughty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname from Irish. | Bold; brave, courageous. |
Letter map: Dougherty vs doughty
Shared letters muted; letters that set Dougherty and doughty apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. Dougherty runs 9 letters (CVVCCVCCV) against doughty's 7 (CVVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for Dougherty / doughty
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Dougherty is aname and doughtyanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Dougherty is recorded at frequency rank #36,113, classified as aname. doughty is at rank #35,694, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdaʊti/.
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 71807, this pair ranks #45,320 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Dougherty vs doughty
Shared letters: dghotuy. Private to "Dougherty": er. Private to "doughty": -.
"Dougherty" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCV · "doughty" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Dougherty" for "doughty" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "Dougherty" or "doughty" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "Dougherty" and "doughty". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Dougherty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doughty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,320 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Dougherty" and "doughty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Doherty vs Dougherty". 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 #45,320 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.