Which to use
“dais” and “drain” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,873
- “dais” frequency rank
- #6,353
- “drain” frequency rank
- 52226
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dais | drain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume; a plughole (UK) |
Where the eye mixes dais and drain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dais runs 4 letters (CVVC) against drain's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dais and drain
A purely visual mix-up. dais (/ˈdeɪ.ɪs/) and drain (/dɹeɪn/) 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 52226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dais is recorded at frequency rank #45,873, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdeɪ.ɪs/. drain is at rank #6,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹeɪn/.
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 52226, this pair ranks #158,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dais vs drain
Shared letters: adi. Private to "dais": s. Private to "drain": nr.
"dais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dais" and "drain" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dais" vs "drain" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "dais" and "drain" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dais" and "drain" 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 #158,833 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.