Which to use
“duff” and “dun” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,063
- “duff” frequency rank
- #18,810
- “dun” frequency rank
- 36873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duff | dun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dough. | A brownish grey colour. |
Where the eye mixes duff and dun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: duff vs dun
A purely visual mix-up. duff (/dʌf/) and dun (/dʌn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36873, 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/. dun is at rank #18,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌn/.
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 36873, this pair ranks #299,415 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of duff vs dun
Shared letters: du. Private to "duff": f. Private to "dun": n.
"duff" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- duff ← dduff · dfuf · duf · udff
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duff" for "dun" ever safe?
Which is more common, "duff" or "dun"?
After this comparison
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 "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #299,415 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duff" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dun". 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 #299,415 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.