duckvsducsConfusable pair

Which to use

“duck” and “ducs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,624
“duck” frequency rank
#14,017
“ducs” frequency rank
39641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duck ducs
Definition Toile épaisse et résistante utilisée pour des bâches, de tentes, des voiles, etc. Pluriel de duc.

Letter map: duck vs ducs

Shared letters muted; letters that set duck and ducs apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
duck
4 ch
ducs

Pair insight - duck / ducs

duck and ducs are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - k in “duck” becomes s in “ducs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duck is recorded at frequency rank #25,624, classified as anoun. ducs is at rank #14,017, 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 39641, this pair ranks #246,465 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of duck vs ducs

Shared letters: cdu. Private to "duck": k. Private to "ducs": s.

"duck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "ducs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duckdcuk · dduck · ducck · duckk · dukc · udck
  • ducsdcus · dducs · duccs · ducss · dusc · udcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duck" for "ducs" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - k in “duck” becomes s in “ducs”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "duck" vs "ducs" - which ranks higher?
"ducs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,017 in our French list, against #25,624 for "duck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "duck" and "ducs". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "duck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ducs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,465 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duck" and "ducs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drunk vs duck". 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 #246,465 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