Which to use
“Dunham” and “Durham” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,823
- “Dunham” frequency rank
- #9,883
- “Durham” frequency rank
- 29706
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Dunham | Durham |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname from Old English. | A county in the Northeast of England; in full, County Durham. |
Where the eye mixes Dunham and Durham
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Dunham and Durham follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between Dunham and Durham
A purely visual mix-up. Dunham (/ˈdʌnəm/) and Durham (/ˈdʌ.ɹəm/) 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 - n in “Dunham” becomes r in “Durham”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Dunham is recorded at frequency rank #19,823, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈdʌnəm/. Durham is at rank #9,883, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈdʌ.ɹəm/.
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 29706, this pair ranks #360,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Dunham vs Durham
Shared letters: adhmu. Private to "Dunham": n. Private to "Durham": r.
"Dunham" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Durham" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Dunham" and "Durham" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Dunham" or "Durham"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Dunham" and "Durham" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Dunham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Durham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Dunham" and "Durham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Durham vs durian". 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 #360,707 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.