Which to use
“dour” is an adjective and “dow” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #12,409
- “dow” frequency rank
- 62289
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | dow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | To be worth. |
Where the eye mixes dour and dow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dour is /ˈdʊə/ while dow is /daʊ/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dour is recorded at frequency rank #49,880, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdʊə/. dow is at rank #12,409, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊ/.
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 62289, this pair ranks #89,348 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs dow
Shared letters: do. Private to "dour": ru. Private to "dow": w.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dow" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur