Which to use
“dregs” and “duress” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,900
- “dregs” frequency rank
- #28,178
- “duress” frequency rank
- 74078
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dregs | duress |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The sediment settled at the bottom of a liquid; the lees in a container of unfiltered wine. | Harsh treatment. |
Where the eye mixes dregs and duress
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dregs with duress
A purely visual mix-up. dregs (/dɹɛɡz/) and duress (/djʊˈɹɛs/) 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 74078, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dregs is recorded at frequency rank #45,900, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹɛɡz/. duress is at rank #28,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced /djʊˈɹɛs/.
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 74078, this pair ranks #37,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dregs vs duress
Shared letters: ders. Private to "dregs": g. Private to "duress": u.
"dregs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "duress" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dregs" and "duress" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dregs" or "duress"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dregs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duress" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dregs" and "duress" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dings vs dregs". 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 #37,486 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.