dubvsdunWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dub” and “dun” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,557
“dub” frequency rank
#45,320
“dun” frequency rank
80877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dub dun
Definition carvalho penugem imatura em pássaros jovens

Where the eye mixes dub and dun

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dub and dun follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
dub
3 ch
dun

Visual trap between dub and dun

A purely visual mix-up. dub (/ˈdʊp/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) and dun (/duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - b in “dub” becomes n in “dun”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dub is recorded at frequency rank #35,557, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdʊp/, ouvir^(fonte ?). dun is at rank #45,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn].

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 80877, this pair ranks #1,253 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dub vs dun

Shared letters: du. Private to "dub": b. Private to "dun": n.

"dub" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dub" for "dun" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdʊp/, ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dub" or "dun"?
"dub" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,557 in our Portuguese list, against #45,320 for "dun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dub" and "dun" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dub" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,253 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dub" and "dun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,253 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