Which to use
“dour” and “due” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #442
- “due” frequency rank
- 50322
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | due |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | Owed or owing. |
Where the eye mixes dour and due
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. dour (/ˈdʊə/) and due (/djuː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50322, 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/. due is at rank #442, tagged as anadj, pronounced /djuː/.
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 50322, this pair ranks #175,349 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs due
Shared letters: du. Private to "dour": or. Private to "due": e.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "due" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur