Which to use
“dour” is an adjective and “dox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #49,882
- “dox” frequency rank
- 99762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | dox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | plural of doc |
Letter map: dour vs dox
Shared letters muted; letters that set dour and dox apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against dox's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for dour / dox
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dour is anadjective and doxanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 99762, 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/. dox is at rank #49,882, tagged as anoun.
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 99762, this pair ranks #8 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs dox
Shared letters: do. Private to "dour": ru. Private to "dox": x.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dour" and "dox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dour" vs "dox" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dour" and "dox".
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dour" and "dox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DNP 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 #8 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.