docuvsdonWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,920
“docu” frequency rank
#1,589
“don” frequency rank
30509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature docu don
Definition Documentaire. Action d’offrir à quelqu’un quelque chose, de lui en abandonner la propriété ou présent qu’on lui fait ainsi.

Where the eye mixes docu and don

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

4 ch
docu
3 ch
don

Look-alike desk: docu vs don

A purely visual mix-up. docu (\dɔ.ky\) and don (\dɔ̃\) 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 30509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

docu is recorded at frequency rank #28,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ky\. don is at rank #1,589, 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 30509, this pair ranks #309,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of docu vs don

Shared letters: do. Private to "docu": cu. Private to "don": n.

"docu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "don" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • docudcou · ddocu · doccu · douc · odcu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "docu" and "don" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ky\ versus \dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "docu" or "don"?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,589 in our French list, against #28,920 for "docu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "docu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "don" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "docu" and "don" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs docu". 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 #309,849 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