Which to use
“dou” and “douma” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,238
- “dou” frequency rank
- #30,982
- “douma” frequency rank
- 53220
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dou | douma |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de tou par adoucissement (t → d). | Chambre basse du parlement en Russie. |
Where the eye mixes dou and douma
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dou with douma
A purely visual mix-up. dou (\ˈdu:\) and douma (\du.ma\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “dou” sits inside “douma”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dou is recorded at frequency rank #22,238, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdu:\. douma is at rank #30,982, tagged as anoun, pronounced \du.ma\.
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 53220, this pair ranks #142,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dou vs douma
Shared letters: dou. Private to "dou": -. Private to "douma": am.
"dou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "douma" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- douma ← ddouma · domua · douam · doumma · duoma · oduma
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dou" for "douma" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dou" vs "douma" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dou" and "douma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #142,263 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dou" and "douma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs douma". 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 #142,263 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.