dumavsduraConfusable pair

Which to use

“duma” and “dura” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,013
“duma” frequency rank
#42,109
“dura” frequency rank
72122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duma dura
Definition 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). Ellipsis of dura mater.

Where the eye mixes duma and dura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. duma and dura follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
duma
4 ch
dura

Why the eye confuses duma with dura

A purely visual mix-up. duma (/ˈdumə/) and dura (/ˈdjʊə.ɹə/) 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 a single letter - m in “duma” becomes r in “dura”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duma is recorded at frequency rank #30,013, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdumə/. 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 72122, this pair ranks #44,139 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of duma vs dura

Shared letters: adu. Private to "duma": m. Private to "dura": r.

"duma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duma ← dduma · dmua · duam · dumma · udma
  • dura ← ddura · drua · duar · durra · udra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "duma" and "dura" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdumə/ versus /ˈdjʊə.ɹə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "duma" vs "dura" - which ranks higher?
"duma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,013 in our English list, against #42,109 for "dura". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "duma" and "dura" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "duma" 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 #44,139 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duma" 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 #44,139 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list