Which to use
“Drs” and “dure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,556
- “Drs” frequency rank
- #1,912
- “dure” frequency rank
- 47468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Drs | dure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de Dr ou Dʳ. | Femme pleine de dureté, insensible ou très sévère. |
Where the eye mixes Drs and dure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Drs runs 3 letters (CCC) against dure's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Drs with dure
A purely visual mix-up. Drs (\dɔk.tœʁ\) and dure (\dyʁ\) 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 47468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Drs is recorded at frequency rank #45,556, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔk.tœʁ\. dure is at rank #1,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dyʁ\.
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 47468, this pair ranks #186,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Drs vs dure
Shared letters: dr. Private to "Drs": s. Private to "dure": eu.
"Drs" · 3 letters · shape CCC · "dure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dure ← ddure · drue · duer · durre · udre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Drs" and "dure" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "Drs" or "dure"?
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 "Drs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Drs" and "dure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs Drs". 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 #186,680 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.