dominevsdraineWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: domine is a verb, draine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“domine” is a verb and “draine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,698
“domine” frequency rank
#44,427
“draine” frequency rank
51125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature domine draine
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dominer. Grive draine.

Where the eye mixes domine and draine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. domine (CVCVCV) and draine (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
domine
6 ch
draine

Look-alike desk: domine vs draine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: domine is \dɔ.min\ while draine is \dʁɛn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

domine is recorded at frequency rank #6,698, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.min\. draine is at rank #44,427, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛn\.

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 51125, this pair ranks #157,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of domine vs draine

Shared letters: dein. Private to "domine": mo. Private to "draine": ar.

"domine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "draine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • domine ← ddomine · dmoine · doimne · domien · dominne · dommine · domnie · odmine
  • draine ← darine · ddraine · draien · drainne · dranie · driane · drraine · rdaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "domine" for "draine" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "domine" is a verb and "draine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "domine" vs "draine" - which ranks higher?
"domine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,698 in our French list, against #44,427 for "draine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "domine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "domine" and "draine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damné vs draine". 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 #157,395 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