Which to use
“duds” and “duty” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,792
- “duds” frequency rank
- #1,994
- “duty” frequency rank
- 41786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duds | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dud | That which one is morally or legally obligated to do. |
Where the eye mixes duds and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duds (CVCC) and duty (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between duds and duty
A purely visual mix-up. duds (/dʌdz/) and duty (/ˈdjuː.ti/) 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 41786, 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/. duty is at rank #1,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdjuː.ti/.
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 41786, this pair ranks #255,205 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duds vs duty
Shared letters: du. Private to "duds": s. Private to "duty": ty.
"duds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "duds" and "duty" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "duds" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "duds" and "duty" 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 "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,205 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duds" and "duty" 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 #255,205 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.