Which to use
“drug” and “dud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,422
- “drug” frequency rank
- #29,251
- “dud” frequency rank
- 30673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drug | dud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose. | A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile. |
Where the eye mixes drug and dud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses drug with dud
A purely visual mix-up. drug (/dɹʌɡ/) and dud (/dʌd/) 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 30673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drug is recorded at frequency rank #1,422, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹʌɡ/. dud is at rank #29,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌd/.
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 30673, this pair ranks #352,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drug vs dud
Shared letters: du. Private to "drug": gr. Private to "dud": -.
"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "dud" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drug" and "dud" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "drug" or "dud"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "drug" and "dud" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drug" and "dud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dud". 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 #352,579 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.