Which to use
“due” is an adjective and “dyed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #442
- “due” frequency rank
- #16,459
- “dyed” frequency rank
- 16901
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | due | dyed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Owed or owing. | simple past and past participle of dye |
Where the eye mixes due and dyed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses due with dyed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: due is /djuː/ while dyed is /daɪd/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
due is recorded at frequency rank #442, classified as anadj, pronounced /djuː/. dyed is at rank #16,459, tagged as averb, pronounced /daɪd/.
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 16901, this pair ranks #454,869 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of due vs dyed
Shared letters: de. Private to "due": u. Private to "dyed": y.
"due" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "dyed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dyed ← ddyed · deyd · dyde · dyedd · dyyed · yded
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "due" for "dyed" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "due" or "dyed" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "due" and "dyed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "due" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dyed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #454,869 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "due" and "dyed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DDD vs dyed". 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 #454,869 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.