damvsdrawWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dam is a abbrev, draw is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dam” is an abbrev and “draw” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,288
“dam” frequency rank
#44,535
“draw” frequency rank
68823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam draw
Definition Dekameter zeichnen

Letter map: dam vs draw

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

3 ch
dam
4 ch
draw

Role in the sentence - dam and draw

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dam is anabbrev and drawaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dam is recorded at frequency rank #24,288, classified as anabbrev. draw is at rank #44,535, tagged as averb, pronounced [drɔː].

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 68823, this pair ranks #495,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs draw

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "draw": rw.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "draw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • draw ← darw · ddraw · draww · drraw · drwa · rdaw

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "draw" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dam" is an abbrev and "draw" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dam" or "draw" show up more?
"dam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,288 in our German list, against #44,535 for "draw". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "dam" vs "draw" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #495,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "draw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draw vs duran". 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 #495,758 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list