dos

\do\

/\do\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“dos” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #961) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#961
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Partie du corps humain située au-dessus du postérieur, depuis le cou jusqu’aux reins.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dos · dos · French

dos · rank #961 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #961
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH court

Nearest frequency peer: court (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “dos”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “dos” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

dos vs du
33% similar
dos vs dr
33% similar
dos vs Ds
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for dos
PropertyValue
Headworddos
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\do\
Letters3
Frequency rank#961
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “dos” sits in French frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).dos lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for dos is neighbouring look-alikes ("du", "dr", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \do\. Frequency #961 among 5,307 “D” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dos, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "du", "dr", "Ds", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is dos, spelled D-O-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Partie du corps humain située au-dessus du postérieur, depuis le cou jusqu’aux reins.
  2. 2
    Partie équivalente au dos humain du corps de certains animaux.
  3. 3
    Envers, partie de certaines choses qui, par sa destination, par sa position ou par sa forme, offre quelque rapport avec le dos de l’homme ou de l’animal.
  4. 4
    Dos crawlé (style de nage).
  5. 5
    Partie opposée au tranchant d’une lame, qui porte généralement les inscriptions indiquant le nom du fournisseur de l’arme.
  6. 6
    Côté du livre où se trouve la reliure. À ne pas confondre avec la quatrième de couverture.
  7. 7
    Proxénète.
  8. 8
    Dans une course hippique, espace situé derrière un cheval, sillage.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how dos appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Tandis que j’arrondis le dos en m’inclinant, elle m’honore d’un salut de tête qui ne met en jeu que les vertèbres de son long cou, […].
  2. Il dormait sans qu’on l’entende respirer, couché à plat sur le dos comme les beaux dormeurs.

Antonyms

devantfaceventre

This word in other languages

back(English)espalda(Español)Rücken(Deutsch)costas(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dos"?
"dos" is spelled D-O-S. The IPA pronunciation is \do\.
What does "dos" mean?
As a noun, "dos" means: Partie du corps humain située au-dessus du postérieur, depuis le cou jusqu’aux reins.
What words are commonly confused with "dos"?
"dos" is commonly confused with "du", "dr", "Ds". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "dos"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dos" is \do\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dos" come from?
"dos" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dos", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

dur#940via#992vis#993vol#929

What to do next

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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list