Which to use
“dur” is an adjective and “duty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,793
- “dur” frequency rank
- #1,994
- “duty” frequency rank
- 41787
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dur | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Major; in the major mode. | That which one is morally or legally obligated to do. |
Where the eye mixes dur and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dur 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: dur vs duty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dur is /duːɹ/ 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dur is recorded at frequency rank #39,793, classified as anadj, pronounced /duːɹ/. 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 41787, this pair ranks #255,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dur vs duty
Shared letters: du. Private to "dur": r. Private to "duty": ty.
"dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dur" and "duty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dur" or "duty"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dur" 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 #255,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dur" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dox vs dur". 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 #255,199 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.