dunvsduroTell them apart

Quick tell: dun is a noun, duro is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dun” is a noun and “duro” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,320
“dun” frequency rank
#3,070
“duro” frequency rank
48390
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dun duro
Definition penugem imatura em pássaros jovens difícil de quebrar ou de desfazer

Letter map: dun vs duro

Shared letters muted; letters that set dun and duro apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dun runs 3 letters (CVC) against duro's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dun
4 ch
duro

Grammar separator: dun vs duro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dun is anoun and duroanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dun is recorded at frequency rank #45,320, classified as anoun, pronounced /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]. duro is at rank #3,070, tagged as anadj.

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 48390, this pair ranks #16,784 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dun vs duro

Shared letters: du. Private to "dun": n. Private to "duro": or.

"dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "duro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duro ← dduro · druo · duor · durro · udro

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dun" and "duro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dun" is a noun and "duro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dun" vs "duro" - which ranks higher?
"duro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,070 in our Portuguese list, against #45,320 for "dun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dun" and "duro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,784 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dun" and "duro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dun". 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 #16,784 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