Which to use
“dup” is a verb and “duty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,177
- “dup” frequency rank
- #1,994
- “duty” frequency rank
- 30171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dup | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | to open (a door, gate etc.) | That which one is morally or legally obligated to do. |
Where the eye mixes dup and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dup runs 3 letters (CVC) against duty's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dup vs duty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dup is /dʌp/ while duty is /ˈdjuː.ti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dup is recorded at frequency rank #28,177, classified as averb, pronounced /dʌp/. duty is at rank #1,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdjuː.ti/.
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 30171, this pair ranks #356,788 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dup vs duty
Shared letters: du. Private to "dup": p. Private to "duty": ty.
"dup" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dup" and "duty" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dup" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dup" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #356,788 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dup" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dup". 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 #356,788 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.