Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dr” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,457
- “dear” frequency rank
- #1,995
- “dr” frequency rank
- 37452
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dr |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cher, chère. | Symbole du drachme (dram), unité de mesure de masse ou de volume anglo-saxonne. |
Letter map: dear vs dr
Shared letters muted; letters that set dear and dr apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for dear / dr
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dear is anadjective and drasymbol. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #35,457, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdɪɹ\. dr is at rank #1,995, tagged as asymbol.
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 37452, this pair ranks #262,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dr
Shared letters: dr. Private to "dear": ae. Private to "dr": -.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dr" · 2 letters · shape CC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dear" for "dr" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dear" vs "dr" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "dear" vs "dr" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dear vs dray". 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 #262,420 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.