Which to use
“duly” is an adverb and “dura” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,220
- “duly” frequency rank
- #42,109
- “dura” frequency rank
- 58329
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duly | dura |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a due, fit, or becoming manner; as it ought to be; suitably; properly. | Ellipsis of dura mater. |
Where the eye mixes duly and dura
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duly and dura follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between duly and dura
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: duly is /ˈdʒuːli/ while dura is /ˈdjʊə.ɹə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duly is recorded at frequency rank #16,220, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈdʒuːli/. dura is at rank #42,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdjʊə.ɹə/.
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 58329, this pair ranks #113,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of duly vs dura
Shared letters: du. Private to "duly": ly. Private to "dura": ar.
"duly" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duly" for "dura" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "duly" or "dura" show up more?
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 "duly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duly" and "dura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dour vs dura". 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 #113,306 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.