dirty vs duty, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dirty” is an adjective and “duty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,126
“dirty” frequency rank: #25,611
“duty” frequency rank: 69737
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dirty	duty
Definition	Sucio	Deber, obligación.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dirty and duty apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

dirty

4 ch

duty

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dirty is /ˈdɜː.ti/ 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 69737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dirty is recorded at frequency rank #44,126, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɜː.ti/. duty is at rank #25,611, 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 69737, this pair ranks #31,320 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dirty vs duty

Shared letters: dty. Private to "dirty": ir. Private to "duty": u.

"dirty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

dirty ← ddirty · dirrty · dirtty · dirtyy · diryt · ditry · drity · idrty
duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequency comparison

dirty#44,126

duty#25,611

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dirty" and "duty" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dirty" is an adjective and "duty" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "dirty" or "duty"?

"duty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,611 in our Spanish list, against #44,126 for "dirty". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering dirty vs duty

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “dirty”; for a noun, it's “duty”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dirty” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable