ductovsdutyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,541
“ducto” frequency rank
#25,611
“duty” frequency rank
69152
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ducto duty
Definition Conducto, tubería destinada al transporte de fluidos. Deber, obligación.

Where the eye mixes ducto and duty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ducto runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against duty's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ducto
4 ch
duty

Why the eye confuses ducto with duty

A purely visual mix-up. ducto ([ˈd̪ukt̪o]) and duty (/ˈdjuː.ti/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ducto is recorded at frequency rank #43,541, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ukt̪o]. 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 69152, this pair ranks #32,689 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ducto vs duty

Shared letters: dtu. Private to "ducto": co. Private to "duty": y.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ducto ← dcuto · dducto · duccto · ducot · ductto · dutco · udcto
  • duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ducto" for "duty" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪ukt̪o] versus /ˈdjuː.ti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ducto" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
"duty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,611 in our Spanish list, against #43,541 for "ducto". 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 "ducto" and "duty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ducto" 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 #32,689 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ducto" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Deusto vs ducto". 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 #32,689 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