Which to use
“drug” and “duc” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,732
- “drug” frequency rank
- #2,118
- “duc” frequency rank
- 31850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drug | duc |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Médicament, drogue. | Titre qui était le plus élevé parmi l’ancienne noblesse de France et de quelques autres États. |
Where the eye mixes drug and duc
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. drug runs 4 letters (CCVC) against duc's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: drug vs duc
A purely visual mix-up. drug (\dɹʌɡ\) and duc (\dyk\) 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 31850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drug is recorded at frequency rank #29,732, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɹʌɡ\. duc is at rank #2,118, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dyk\.
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 31850, this pair ranks #301,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drug vs duc
Shared letters: du. Private to "drug": gr. Private to "duc": c.
"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "duc" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- drug ← ddrug · drgu · drrug · drugg · durg · rdug
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drug" for "duc" ever safe?
Frequency check: "drug" vs "duc" - which ranks higher?
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 "drug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #301,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drug" and "duc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs drug". 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 #301,153 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.