Which to use
“dun” and “duty” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,320
- “dun” frequency rank
- #24,304
- “duty” frequency rank
- 69624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dun | duty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | penugem imatura em pássaros jovens | dever; obrigação |
Where the eye mixes dun and duty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dun runs 3 letters (CVC) against duty's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dun and duty
A purely visual mix-up. dun (/duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69624, 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]. 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 69624, this pair ranks #3,891 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dun vs duty
Shared letters: du. Private to "dun": n. Private to "duty": ty.
"dun" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- duty ← dduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dun" for "duty" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dun" or "duty" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dun" 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 #3,891 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dun" and "duty" 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 #3,891 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.