Which to use
“duct” and “dud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,330
- “duct” frequency rank
- #29,251
- “dud” frequency rank
- 42581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duct | dud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pipe, tube or canal which carries gas or liquid from one place to another. | 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 duct and dud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. duct (/dʌkt/) 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 42581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duct is recorded at frequency rank #13,330, classified as anoun, pronounced /dʌkt/. 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 42581, this pair ranks #247,883 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duct vs dud
Shared letters: du. Private to "duct": ct. Private to "dud": -.
"duct" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dud" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- duct ← dcut · dduct · ducct · ductt · dutc · udct