donsvsDrsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,067
“dons” frequency rank
#45,556
“Drs” frequency rank
49623
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dons Drs
Definition Pluriel de don. Pluriel de Dr ou Dʳ.

Where the eye mixes dons and Drs

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

4 ch
dons
3 ch
Drs

Look-alike desk: dons vs Drs

A purely visual mix-up. dons (\dɔ̃\) and Drs (\dɔk.tœʁ\) 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 49623, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dons is recorded at frequency rank #4,067, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ̃\. Drs is at rank #45,556, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔk.tœʁ\.

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 49623, this pair ranks #169,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dons vs Drs

Shared letters: ds. Private to "dons": no. Private to "Drs": r.

"dons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Drs" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donsddons · dnos · donns · donss · dosn · odns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dons" for "Drs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ̃\ versus \dɔk.tœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dons" or "Drs"?
"dons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,067 in our French list, against #45,556 for "Drs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dons" and "Drs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs Drs". 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 #169,149 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