diquevsduqueTell them apart

Which to use

“dique” and “duque” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,113
“dique” frequency rank
#3,548
“duque” frequency rank
20661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dique duque
Definition Valla hecha para contener el agua. Título nobiliario de mayor dignidad, entre la nobleza europea.

Where the eye mixes dique and duque

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

5 ch
dique
5 ch
duque

Why the eye confuses dique with duque

A purely visual mix-up. dique ([ˈd̪ike]) and duque ([ˈd̪uke]) 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 - i in “dique” becomes u in “duque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dique is recorded at frequency rank #17,113, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ike]. duque is at rank #3,548, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪uke].

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 20661, this pair ranks #258,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dique vs duque

Shared letters: dequ. Private to "dique": i. Private to "duque": -.

"dique" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "duque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diqueddique · diqeu · diqque · diuqe · dqiue · idque
  • duquedduque · dquue · duqeu · duqque · duuqe · udque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dique" and "duque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪ike] versus [ˈd̪uke]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dique" or "duque"?
"duque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,548 in our Spanish list, against #17,113 for "dique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dique" and "duque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "digne vs dique". 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 #258,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list