domusvsdourWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: domus is a noun, dour is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#43,890
“domus” frequency rank
#44,426
“dour” frequency rank
88316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature domus dour
Definition Maison d’habitation urbaine destinée à une famille, dans la Rome antique. Austère, dur, inhospitalier.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set domus and dour apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
domus
4 ch
dour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: domus is anoun and douranadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

domus is recorded at frequency rank #43,890, classified as anoun. dour is at rank #44,426, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈdʊə(ɹ)\.

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 88316, this pair ranks #7,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of domus vs dour

Shared letters: dou. Private to "domus": ms. Private to "dour": r.

"domus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • domusddomus · dmous · dommus · domsu · domuss · doums · odmus
  • dourddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur

Frequency comparison

domus#43,890
dour#44,426

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "domus" and "dour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "domus" is a noun and "dour" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "domus" or "dour"?
"domus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,890 in our French list, against #44,426 for "dour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering domus vs dour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “domus”; for an adjective, it's “dour”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “domus” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list