Which to use
“daily” is an adjective and “dally” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #899
- “daily” frequency rank
- #37,876
- “dally” frequency rank
- 38775
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | daily | dally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That occurs every day, or at least every working day. | To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set daily and dally apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
daily and dally form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - i in “daily” becomes l in “dally” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
daily is recorded at frequency rank #899, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdeɪli/. dally is at rank #37,876, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdæli/.
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 38775, this pair ranks #282,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "daily" and "dally" be used interchangeably?
Remembering daily vs dally
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “daily”; for a verb, it's “dally”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “daily” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable