Which to use
“duds” and “dung” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,792
- “duds” frequency rank
- #21,502
- “dung” frequency rank
- 61294
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duds | dung |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dud | Manure; animal excrement. |
Where the eye mixes duds and dung
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between duds and dung
A purely visual mix-up. duds (/dʌdz/) and dung (/ˈdʌŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duds is recorded at frequency rank #39,792, classified as anoun, pronounced /dʌdz/. dung is at rank #21,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdʌŋ/.
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 61294, this pair ranks #95,081 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of duds vs dung
Shared letters: du. Private to "duds": s. Private to "dung": gn.
"duds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duds" for "dung" ever safe?
Frequency check: "duds" vs "dung" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "duds" and "dung" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "duds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,081 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duds" and "dung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dabs vs duds". 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 #95,081 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.