dah vs de, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dah” and “de” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,721
“dah” frequency rank: #582
“de” frequency rank: 25303
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dah	de
Definition	The spoken representation of a dash in radio and telegraph Morse code.	The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.

Where the eye mixes dah and de

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

dah

2 ch

Visual trap between dah and de

A purely visual mix-up. dah (/dɑː/) and de (/ˈdɛ/) 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 25303, 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/. de is at rank #582, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛ/.

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 25303, this pair ranks #395,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dah vs de

Shared letters: d. Private to "dah": ah. Private to "de": e.

"dah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "de" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dah" for "de" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/dɑː/ versus /ˈdɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "dah" vs "de" - which ranks higher?

"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #582 in our English list, against #24,721 for "dah". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dah" and "de" 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 "de" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #395,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dah" and "de" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dah vs dox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #395,332 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.