Which to use
“douane” and “doute” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,566
- “douane” frequency rank
- #489
- “doute” frequency rank
- 12055
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douane | doute |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Administration chargée de percevoir à la frontière les droits imposés sur l’entrée et la sortie des marchandises et de veiller à ce que les importations ou les exportations prohibées n’aient pas lieu. | Incertitude sur l’existence ou la vérité d’une chose, sur l'exactitude ou la fausseté d’une idée, d’une affirmation. |
Where the eye mixes douane and doute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses douane with doute
A purely visual mix-up. douane (\dwan\) and doute (\dut\) 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 12055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douane is recorded at frequency rank #11,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \dwan\. doute is at rank #489, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dut\.
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 12055, this pair ranks #406,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of douane vs doute
Shared letters: deou. Private to "douane": an. Private to "doute": t.
"douane" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV · "doute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "douane" and "doute" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "douane" vs "doute" - which ranks higher?
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 "douane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douane" and "doute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douane vs doutant". 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 #406,757 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.