Which to use
“duke” and “dust” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,358
- “duke” frequency rank
- #48,457
- “dust” frequency rank
- 63815
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | duke | dust |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Duc. | Poussière. |
Where the eye mixes duke and dust
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. duke (CVCV) and dust (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: duke vs dust
A purely visual mix-up. duke (\djuːk\) and dust (\ˈdʌst\) 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 63815, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
duke is recorded at frequency rank #15,358, classified as anoun, pronounced \djuːk\. dust is at rank #48,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʌst\.
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 63815, this pair ranks #80,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of duke vs dust
Shared letters: du. Private to "duke": ek. Private to "dust": st.
"duke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "duke" for "dust" ever safe?
Frequency check: "duke" vs "dust" - 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 "duke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "duke" and "dust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DDT vs dust". 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 #80,077 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.