diurnevsdureWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: diurne is a adjective, dure is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“diurne” is an adjective and “dure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,063
“diurne” frequency rank
#1,912
“dure” frequency rank
35975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature diurne dure
Definition Qui dure vingt-quatre heures. Femme pleine de dureté, insensible ou très sévère.

Where the eye mixes diurne and dure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. diurne runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against dure's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
diurne
4 ch
dure

Look-alike desk: diurne vs dure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: diurne is \djyʁn\ while dure is \dyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diurne is recorded at frequency rank #34,063, classified as anadj, pronounced \djyʁn\. dure is at rank #1,912, tagged as anoun, 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 35975, this pair ranks #272,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of diurne vs dure

Shared letters: deru. Private to "diurne": in. Private to "dure": -.

"diurne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "dure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diurneddiurne · dirune · diunre · diuren · diurnne · diurrne · duirne · idurne
  • dureddure · drue · duer · durre · udre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "diurne" and "dure" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "diurne" is an adjective and "dure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "diurne" or "dure"?
"dure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,912 in our French list, against #34,063 for "diurne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "diurne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "diurne" and "dure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diurne vs diurnes". 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 #272,858 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