Which to use
“daft” is an adjective and “dais” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,207
- “daft” frequency rank
- #45,873
- “dais” frequency rank
- 62080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | daft | dais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Foolish, silly, stupid. | A raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy, such as ancestral statues; a similar platform supporting a lectern, pulpit, etc., which may be used to speak from. |
Where the eye mixes daft and dais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daft is /dɑːft/ while dais is /ˈdeɪ.ɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
daft is recorded at frequency rank #16,207, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɑːft/. dais is at rank #45,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdeɪ.ɪs/.
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 62080, this pair ranks #90,501 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of daft vs dais
Shared letters: ad. Private to "daft": ft. Private to "dais": is.
"daft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "daft" and "dais" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "daft" or "dais"?
What to do next
You've compared "daft" and "dais". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "daft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,501 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "daft" and "dais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dais vs Dalia". 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.