dorsvsdurasWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,748
“dors” frequency rank
#23,840
“duras” frequency rank
29588
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dors duras
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de dormir. Cépage donnant du raisin à petits grains noirs. Il est essentiellement cultivé dans la région de Gaillac.

Where the eye mixes dors and duras

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dors
5 ch
duras

Visual trap between dors and duras

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dors is \dɔʁ\ while duras is \dy.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dors is recorded at frequency rank #5,748, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔʁ\. duras is at rank #23,840, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁa\.

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 29588, this pair ranks #315,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dors vs duras

Shared letters: drs. Private to "dors": o. Private to "duras": au.

"dors" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "duras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dorsddors · dorrs · dorss · dosr · dros · odrs
  • durasdduras · druas · duars · durass · durras · dursa · udras

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dors" and "duras" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dors" is a verb and "duras" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dors" or "duras"?
"dors" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,748 in our French list, against #23,840 for "duras". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dors" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dors" and "duras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs duras". 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 #315,724 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