doingvsdonTell them apart

Quick tell: doing is a intj, don is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“doing” is an intj and “don” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,945
“doing” frequency rank
#4,306
“don” frequency rank
33251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doing don
Definition som emitido por um objeto elástico ao ser atingido ou bater num objeto duro professor universitário (especialmente da Universidade de Oxford ou de Cambridge)

Where the eye mixes doing and don

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
doing
3 ch
don

Look-alike desk: doing vs don

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doing is /dɔɪŋ/ while don is /dɒn/ ouvir ^(fonte ?). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doing is recorded at frequency rank #28,945, classified as anintj, pronounced /dɔɪŋ/. don is at rank #4,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɒn/ ouvir ^(fonte ?).

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 33251, this pair ranks #34,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doing vs don

Shared letters: dno. Private to "doing": gi. Private to "don": -.

"doing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "don" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doingddoing · diong · doign · doingg · doinng · donig · oding

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "doing" and "don" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doing" is an intj and "don" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "doing" or "don" show up more?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,306 in our Portuguese list, against #28,945 for "doing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "doing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "don" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doing" and "don" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dink vs doing". 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 #34,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list