dollvsdonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,229
“doll” frequency rank
#4,067
“dons” frequency rank
45296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doll dons
Definition Meuf trans fem. Pluriel de don.

Where the eye mixes doll and dons

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

4 ch
doll
4 ch
dons

Look-alike desk: doll vs dons

A purely visual mix-up. doll (\dɔl\) 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 45296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doll is recorded at frequency rank #41,229, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔl\. 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 45296, this pair ranks #203,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doll vs dons

Shared letters: do. Private to "doll": l. Private to "dons": ns.

"doll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dollddoll · dlol · odll
  • donsddons · dnos · donns · donss · dosn · odns

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doll" and "dons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔl\ versus \dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "doll" vs "dons" - which ranks higher?
"dons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,067 in our French list, against #41,229 for "doll". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "doll" 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 #203,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doll" and "dons" 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 #203,853 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