Which to use
“doute” and “douves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #489
- “doute” frequency rank
- #42,833
- “douves” frequency rank
- 43322
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doute | douves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Incertitude sur l’existence ou la vérité d’une chose, sur l'exactitude ou la fausseté d’une idée, d’une affirmation. | Pluriel de douve. |
Where the eye mixes doute and douves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. doute runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against douves's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: doute vs douves
A purely visual mix-up. doute (\dut\) and douves (\duv\) 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 43322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doute is recorded at frequency rank #489, classified as anoun, pronounced \dut\. douves is at rank #42,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced \duv\.
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 43322, this pair ranks #218,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of doute vs douves
Shared letters: deou. Private to "doute": t. Private to "douves": sv.
"doute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "douves" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doute" and "douves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "doute" or "douves"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "doute" and "douves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "doute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #218,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doute" and "douves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douées vs douves". 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 #218,955 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.