daubevsdureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“daube” and “dure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,720
“daube” frequency rank
#1,912
“dure” frequency rank
31632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daube dure
Definition Manière de préparer certaines viandes avec un assaisonnement particulier et de les cuire à l’étouffée à très petit feu. Femme pleine de dureté, insensible ou très sévère.

Where the eye mixes daube and dure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
daube
4 ch
dure

Visual trap between daube and dure

A purely visual mix-up. daube (\dob\) and dure (\dyʁ\) 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 31632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daube is recorded at frequency rank #29,720, classified as anoun, pronounced \dob\. dure is at rank #1,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dyʁ\.

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 31632, this pair ranks #302,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of daube vs dure

Shared letters: deu. Private to "daube": ab. Private to "dure": r.

"daube" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "dure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • daubeadube · dabue · daubbe · daueb · ddaube · duabe
  • dureddure · drue · duer · durre · udre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "daube" and "dure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dob\ versus \dyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "daube" vs "dure" - which ranks higher?
"dure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,912 in our French list, against #29,720 for "daube". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daube" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #302,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daube" and "dure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dabo vs daube". 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 #302,590 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list