dripvsdupWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“drip” and “dup” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,329
“drip” frequency rank
#28,177
“dup” frequency rank
41506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drip dup
Definition To fall one drop at a time. to open (a door, gate etc.)

Where the eye mixes drip and dup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
drip
3 ch
dup

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. drip (/dɹɪp/) and dup (/dʌp/) 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 41506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drip is recorded at frequency rank #13,329, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹɪp/. dup is at rank #28,177, tagged as averb, pronounced /dʌp/.

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 41506, this pair ranks #257,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of drip vs dup

Shared letters: dp. Private to "drip": ir. Private to "dup": u.

"drip" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "dup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dripddrip · dirp · dripp · drpi · drrip · rdip

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drip" and "dup" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɹɪp/ versus /dʌp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "drip" or "dup"?
"drip" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,329 in our English list, against #28,177 for "dup". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "drip" and "dup". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "drip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drip" and "dup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dup". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list