deusvsdurConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,168
“deus” frequency rank
#940
“dur” frequency rank
24108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deus dur
Definition Deux. Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer.

Where the eye mixes deus and dur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
deus
3 ch
dur

Look-alike desk: deus vs dur

A purely visual mix-up. deus (\dœs\) 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 24108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deus is recorded at frequency rank #23,168, classified as anadj, pronounced \dœs\. 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 24108, this pair ranks #348,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deus vs dur

Shared letters: du. Private to "deus": es. Private to "dur": r.

"deus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deusddeus · desu · deuss · edus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deus" and "dur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dœs\ versus \dyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "deus" vs "dur" - which ranks higher?
"dur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #940 in our French list, against #23,168 for "deus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "deus" 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 #348,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deus" and "dur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deus vs dust". 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 #348,559 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