Which to use
“douse” and “doze” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,588
- “douse” frequency rank
- #44,749
- “doze” frequency rank
- 92337
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douse | doze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse. | To sleep lightly or briefly; to nap, snooze. |
Where the eye mixes douse and doze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. douse runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against doze's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: douse vs doze
A purely visual mix-up. douse (/daʊs/) and doze (/doʊz/) 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 92337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douse is recorded at frequency rank #47,588, classified as averb, pronounced /daʊs/. doze is at rank #44,749, tagged as averb, pronounced /doʊz/.
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 92337, this pair ranks #2,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of douse vs doze
Shared letters: deo. Private to "douse": su. Private to "doze": z.
"douse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "doze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "douse" and "doze" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "douse" or "doze" show up more?
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 "douse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douse" and "doze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs douse". 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 #2,669 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.