dunningvsduringTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#34,865
“dunning” frequency rank
#181
“during” frequency rank
35046
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dunning during
Definition Attempt to collect a debt. For all of a given time interval; throughout; in; pending.

Letter map: dunning vs during

Shared letters muted; letters that set dunning and during apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
dunning
6 ch
during

Role in the sentence - dunning and during

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dunning is anoun and duringapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dunning is recorded at frequency rank #34,865, classified as anoun. 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 35046, this pair ranks #315,366 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dunning vs during

Shared letters: dginu. Private to "dunning": -. Private to "during": r.

"dunning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "during" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dunningddunning · dnuning · duning · duninng · dunnign · dunningg · dunninng · dunnnig
  • duringdduring · druing · duirng · durign · duringg · durinng · durnig · durring

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dunning" and "during" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dunning" is a noun and "during" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "dunning" or "during" show up more?
"during" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #181 in our English list, against #34,865 for "dunning". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dunning" and "during".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dunning" 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 #315,366 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dunning" and "during" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Denning vs dunning". 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 #315,366 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