Which to use
“dour” and “dur” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,880
- “dour” frequency rank
- #39,793
- “dur” frequency rank
- 89673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dour | dur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stern, harsh and forbidding. | Major; in the major mode. |
Where the eye mixes dour and dur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against dur's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dour and dur
A purely visual mix-up. dour (/ˈdʊə/) and dur (/duːɹ/) 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 89673, 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/. dur is at rank #39,793, tagged as anadj, pronounced /duːɹ/.
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 89673, this pair ranks #4,939 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dour vs dur
Shared letters: dru. Private to "dour": o. Private to "dur": -.
"dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dour" for "dur" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dour" or "dur"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,939 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dour" and "dur" 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 #4,939 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.