Which to use
“duct” is a noun and “dur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,330
- “duct” frequency rank
- #39,793
- “dur” frequency rank
- 53123
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duct | dur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pipe, tube or canal which carries gas or liquid from one place to another. | Major; in the major mode. |
Where the eye mixes duct and dur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duct is /dʌkt/ while dur is /duːɹ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53123, 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/. dur is at rank #39,793, tagged as anadj, pronounced /duːɹ/.
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 53123, this pair ranks #151,533 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duct vs dur
Shared letters: du. Private to "duct": ct. Private to "dur": r.
"duct" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- duct ← dcut · dduct · ducct · ductt · dutc · udct