Which to use
“dai” and “dais” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,328
- “dai” frequency rank
- #45,873
- “dais” frequency rank
- 66201
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dai | dais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A wet nurse; a midwife. | 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. |
Letter map: dai vs dais
Shared letters muted; letters that set dai and dais apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Pair insight - dai / dais
dai and dais are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dai” sits inside “dais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dai is recorded at frequency rank #20,328, classified as anoun. 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 66201, this pair ranks #69,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dai vs dais
Shared letters: adi. Private to "dai": -. Private to "dais": s.
"dai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "dais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dais ← daiss · dasi · ddais
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dai" for "dais" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dai" or "dais"?
What to do next
You've compared "dai" and "dais". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "dai" 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 #69,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dai" 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 #69,104 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.