Which to use
“dote” and “duty” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,580
- “dote” frequency rank
- #24,304
- “duty” frequency rank
- 44884
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dote | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | bens próprios e exclusivos da mulher casada | dever; obrigação |
Where the eye mixes dote and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dote and duty follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between dote and duty
A purely visual mix-up. dote (/ˈdɔ.tɨ/) and duty (/ˈdjuːti/ (UK); /duːti/ (US)) 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 44884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dote is recorded at frequency rank #20,580, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɔ.tɨ/. duty is at rank #24,304, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdjuːti/ (UK); /duːti/ (US).
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 44884, this pair ranks #20,548 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dote vs duty
Shared letters: dt. Private to "dote": eo. Private to "duty": uy.
"dote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dote" and "duty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dote" vs "duty" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dote" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,548 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dote" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs duty". 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 #20,548 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.