Which to use
“dah” and “dais” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,721
- “dah” frequency rank
- #45,873
- “dais” frequency rank
- 70594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dah | dais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The spoken representation of a dash in radio and telegraph Morse code. | 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 dah and dais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dah runs 3 letters (CVC) against dais's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dah and dais
A purely visual mix-up. dah (/dɑː/) and dais (/ˈdeɪ.ɪs/) 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 70594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dah is recorded at frequency rank #24,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɑː/. 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 70594, this pair ranks #49,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dah vs dais
Shared letters: ad. Private to "dah": h. Private to "dais": is.
"dah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dais ← daiss · dasi · ddais
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dah" and "dais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dah" or "dais"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dah" and "dais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dah" 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 #49,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dah" 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
Confusion rank #49,953 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.