Which to use
“dear” and “dur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,457
- “dear” frequency rank
- #940
- “dur” frequency rank
- 36397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cher, chère. | Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer. |
Where the eye mixes dear and dur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dear vs dur
A purely visual mix-up. dear (\ˈdɪɹ\) and dur (\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 36397, 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\. dur is at rank #940, tagged as anadj, 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 36397, this pair ranks #269,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dur
Shared letters: dr. Private to "dear": ae. Private to "dur": u.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "dur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dear" vs "dur" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "dear" and "dur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #269,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dur" 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 #269,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.