Which to use
“day” and “duty” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,334
- “day” frequency rank
- #20,990
- “duty” frequency rank
- 26324
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | day | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jour. | Devoir. |
Where the eye mixes day and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between day and duty
A purely visual mix-up. day (\deɪ\) and duty (\ˈdju.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 26324, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
day is recorded at frequency rank #5,334, classified as anoun, pronounced \deɪ\. duty is at rank #20,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdju.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 26324, this pair ranks #335,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of day vs duty
Shared letters: dy. Private to "day": a. Private to "duty": tu.
"day" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "day" for "duty" ever safe?
Frequency check: "day" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "day" and "duty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "day" 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 #335,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "day" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs duty". 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 #335,714 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.