Which to use
“duff” and “duma” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,063
- “duff” frequency rank
- #30,013
- “duma” frequency rank
- 48076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duff | duma |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dough. | A Russian legislative assembly such as the historical duma of the Russian Empire or the modern lower house of the Federal Assembly (the Russian national parliament). |
Where the eye mixes duff and duma
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duff (CVCC) and duma (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: duff vs duma
A purely visual mix-up. duff (/dʌf/) and duma (/ˈdumə/) 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 48076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duff is recorded at frequency rank #18,063, classified as anoun, pronounced /dʌf/. duma is at rank #30,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdumə/.
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 48076, this pair ranks #196,524 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duff vs duma
Shared letters: du. Private to "duff": f. Private to "duma": am.
"duff" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "duma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duff" for "duma" ever safe?
Which is more common, "duff" or "duma"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "duff" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #196,524 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duff" and "duma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DMT vs duma". 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 #196,524 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.