doumavsdouxConfusable pair

Quick tell: douma is a noun, doux is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“douma” is a noun and “doux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,982
“douma” frequency rank
#2,316
“doux” frequency rank
33298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature douma doux
Definition Chambre basse du parlement en Russie. Agréable au toucher.

Where the eye mixes douma and doux

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

5 ch
douma
4 ch
doux

Visual trap between douma and doux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: douma is \du.ma\ while doux is \du\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

douma is recorded at frequency rank #30,982, classified as anoun, pronounced \du.ma\. 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 33298, this pair ranks #291,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of douma vs doux

Shared letters: dou. Private to "douma": am. Private to "doux": x.

"douma" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "doux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doumaddouma · domua · douam · doumma · duoma · oduma
  • douxddoux · douxx · doxu · duox · odux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "douma" for "doux" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "douma" is a noun and "doux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "douma" or "doux"?
"doux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,316 in our French list, against #30,982 for "douma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "douma" 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 #291,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "douma" and "doux" 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 #291,586 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