Which to use
“dour” is an adjective and “duc” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #36,966
- “duc” frequency rank
- 86846
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | duc |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | A French duke. |
Letter map: dour vs duc
Shared letters muted; letters that set dour and duc apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - dour and duc
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dour is anadjective and ducanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86846, 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/. duc is at rank #36,966, 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 86846, this pair ranks #8,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs duc
Shared letters: du. Private to "dour": or. Private to "duc": c.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "duc" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dour" and "duc" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dour" or "duc"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dour" and "duc".
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dour" and "duc" 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 #8,399 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.