Which to use
“dour” and “dum” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #23,517
- “dum” frequency rank
- 73397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | dum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | cooked with steam |
Where the eye mixes dour and dum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. dour (/ˈdʊə/) and dum (/dʌm/) 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 73397, 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/. dum is at rank #23,517, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dʌm/.
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 73397, this pair ranks #39,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs dum
Shared letters: du. Private to "dour": or. Private to "dum": m.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dum" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur