Which to use
“dur” is an adjective and “dure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #940
- “dur” frequency rank
- #1,912
- “dure” frequency rank
- 2852
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dur | dure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ferme ; difficile à pénétrer ou à entamer. | Femme pleine de dureté, insensible ou très sévère. |
Same sound, different letters: dur vs dure
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - dur and dure
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: dur and dure carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dyʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dur” sits inside “dure”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dur is recorded at frequency rank #940, classified as anadj, pronounced \dyʁ\. 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 2852, this pair ranks #435,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dur vs dure
Shared letters: dru. Private to "dur": -. Private to "dure": e.
"dur" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dure ← ddure · drue · duer · durre · udre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dur" and "dure" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "dur" or "dure"?
After this comparison
"dur" and "dure" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "dur" 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 #435,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dur" and "dure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dure 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 #435,350 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.