douésvsdouxConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,248
“doués” frequency rank
#2,316
“doux” frequency rank
16564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doués doux
Definition Masculin pluriel de doué. Agréable au toucher.

Where the eye mixes doués and doux

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

5 ch
doués
4 ch
doux

Why the eye confuses doués with doux

A purely visual mix-up. doués (\dwe\) and doux (\du\) 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 16564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doués is recorded at frequency rank #14,248, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. doux is at rank #2,316, tagged as anadj, pronounced \du\.

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 16564, this pair ranks #387,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of doués vs doux

Shared letters: dou. Private to "doués": . Private to "doux": x.

"doués" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "doux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • douxddoux · douxx · doxu · duox · odux

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "doués" and "doux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dwe\ versus \du\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "doués" vs "doux" - which ranks higher?
"doux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,316 in our French list, against #14,248 for "doués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "doués" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doués" and "doux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déçues vs doués". 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 #387,255 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