Which to use
“ducs” and “dure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,017
- “ducs” frequency rank
- #1,912
- “dure” frequency rank
- 15929
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ducs | dure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de duc. | Femme pleine de dureté, insensible ou très sévère. |
Where the eye mixes ducs and dure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ducs with dure
A purely visual mix-up. ducs (\dyk\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ducs is recorded at frequency rank #14,017, classified as anoun, pronounced \dyk\. 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 15929, this pair ranks #390,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ducs vs dure
Shared letters: du. Private to "ducs": cs. Private to "dure": er.
"ducs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ducs" for "dure" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ducs" vs "dure" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ducs" 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 #390,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ducs" and "dure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs ducs". 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 #390,213 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.