dinevsdonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,761
“dine” frequency rank
#4,067
“dons” frequency rank
41828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dine dons
Definition Daine (femelle du daim). Pluriel de don.

Where the eye mixes dine and dons

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

4 ch
dine
4 ch
dons

Look-alike desk: dine vs dons

A purely visual mix-up. dine (\din\) and dons (\dɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dine is recorded at frequency rank #37,761, classified as anoun, pronounced \din\. dons is at rank #4,067, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ̃\.

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 41828, this pair ranks #230,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dine vs dons

Shared letters: dn. Private to "dine": ei. Private to "dons": os.

"dine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dineddine · dien · dinne · dnie
  • donsddons · dnos · donns · donss · dosn · odns

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dine" and "dons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\din\ versus \dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dine" or "dons"?
"dons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,067 in our French list, against #37,761 for "dine". 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 "dine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #230,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dine" and "dons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dine vs djinn". 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 #230,207 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