Which to use
“dour” is an adjective and “dua” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #41,094
- “dua” frequency rank
- 90974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | dua |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | Alternative spelling of du'a'. |
Letter map: dour vs dua
Shared letters muted; letters that set dour and dua apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against dua's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - dour and dua
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dour is anadjective and duaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90974, 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/. dua is at rank #41,094, 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 90974, this pair ranks #3,701 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs dua
Shared letters: du. Private to "dour": or. Private to "dua": a.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dua" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dour" for "dua" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dour" or "dua"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dour" and "dua".
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,701 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dour" and "dua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour 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 #3,701 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.