dovevsdownConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#35,471
“dove” frequency rank
#8,531
“down” frequency rank
44002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dove down
Definition Douve. Dépressif, déprimé.

Letter map: dove vs down

Shared letters muted; letters that set dove and down apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
dove
4 ch
down

Part-of-speech tell for dove / down

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dove is anoun and downanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dove is recorded at frequency rank #35,471, classified as anoun. down is at rank #8,531, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɔn\.

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 44002, this pair ranks #213,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dove vs down

Shared letters: do. Private to "dove": ev. Private to "down": nw.

"dove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "down" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doveddove · doev · dovve · dvoe · odve
  • downddown · donw · downn · dowwn · dwon · odwn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dove" and "down" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dove" is a noun and "down" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dove" vs "down" - which ranks higher?
"down" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,531 in our French list, against #35,471 for "dove". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "dove" and "down". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dove" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "down" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dove" and "down" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs dove". 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 #213,808 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