Which to use
“dam” is an abbrev and “dare” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,288
- “dam” frequency rank
- #44,517
- “dare” frequency rank
- 68805
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dam | dare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dekameter | es wagen, zu (+Infinitiv); den Mut haben, zu (+Infinitiv) |
Letter map: dam vs dare
Shared letters muted; letters that set dam and dare apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dam runs 3 letters (CVC) against dare's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - dam and dare
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dam is anabbrev and dareaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dam is recorded at frequency rank #24,288, classified as anabbrev. dare is at rank #44,517, tagged as averb, pronounced [deə(ɹ)].
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 68805, this pair ranks #496,304 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dam vs dare
Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "dare": er.
"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dare ← darre · ddare · drae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dam" for "dare" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dam" or "dare"?
What to do next
You've compared "dam" and "dare". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #496,304 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dam" and "dare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dare vs dörr". 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 #496,304 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.