dellovsdollWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dello is a article, doll is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dello” is an article and “doll” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,458
“dello” frequency rank
#41,229
“doll” frequency rank
76687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dello doll
Definition Contraction de di (« de ») et lo (« le »), du. Meuf trans fem.

Where the eye mixes dello and doll

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

5 ch
dello
4 ch
doll

Look-alike desk: dello vs doll

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dello is \ˈdel.lo\ while doll is \dɔl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dello is recorded at frequency rank #35,458, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.lo\. doll is at rank #41,229, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔl\.

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 76687, this pair ranks #30,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dello vs doll

Shared letters: dlo. Private to "dello": e. Private to "doll": -.

"dello" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "doll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delloddello · delo · delol · dlelo · edllo
  • dollddoll · dlol · odll

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dello" and "doll" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dello" is an article and "doll" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dello" or "doll"?
"dello" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,458 in our French list, against #41,229 for "doll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dello" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dello" and "doll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doll vs domi". 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 #30,428 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