dungvsduringConfusable pair

Quick tell: dung is a noun, during is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dung” is a noun and “during” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,502
“dung” frequency rank
#181
“during” frequency rank
21683
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dung during
Definition Manure; animal excrement. For all of a given time interval; throughout; in; pending.

Where the eye mixes dung and during

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dung
6 ch
during

Visual trap between dung and during

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dung is /ˈdʌŋ/ while during is /ˈdjʊə.ɹɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21683, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dung is recorded at frequency rank #21,502, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdʌŋ/. during is at rank #181, tagged as aprep, pronounced /ˈdjʊə.ɹɪŋ/.

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 21683, this pair ranks #422,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dung vs during

Shared letters: dgnu. Private to "dung": -. Private to "during": ir.

"dung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "during" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dungddung · dnug · dugn · dungg · dunng · udng
  • duringdduring · druing · duirng · durign · duringg · durinng · durnig · durring

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dung" and "during" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dung" is a noun and "during" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dung" vs "during" - which ranks higher?
"during" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #181 in our English list, against #21,502 for "dung". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dung" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "during" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dung" and "during" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DNP vs dung". 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 #422,129 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