Which to use
“draught” and “drought” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,069
- “draught” frequency rank
- #8,276
- “drought” frequency rank
- 34345
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | draught | drought |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative form of draft in some of its senses. | A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell. |
Where the eye mixes draught and drought
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: draught vs drought
A purely visual mix-up. draught (/dɹɑːft/) and drought (/dɹaʊt/) 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 a single letter - a in “draught” becomes o in “drought”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
draught is recorded at frequency rank #26,069, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹɑːft/. drought is at rank #8,276, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹaʊt/.
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 34345, this pair ranks #321,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of draught vs drought
Shared letters: dghrtu. Private to "draught": a. Private to "drought": o.
"draught" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC · "drought" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "draught" for "drought" ever safe?
Which is more common, "draught" or "drought"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "draught" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drought" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "draught" and "drought" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doughty vs drought". 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 #321,650 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.