DalekvsdazedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Dalek is a noun, dazed is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Dalek” is a noun and “dazed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,675
“Dalek” frequency rank
#24,421
“dazed” frequency rank
60096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dalek dazed
Definition A member of a species of extraterrestrial cyborg mutants who appear in the television programme Doctor Who and are known for travelling in metallic shells, having monotone, mechanically distorted voices, repeating a limited number of phrases, and their fanatical obsession with exterminating other, non-Dalek beings. In a state of shock or confusion.

Where the eye mixes Dalek and dazed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Dalek
5 ch
dazed

Why the eye confuses Dalek with dazed

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dalek is /ˈdɑːlɛk/ while dazed is /deɪzd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dalek is recorded at frequency rank #35,675, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɑːlɛk/. dazed is at rank #24,421, tagged as anadj, pronounced /deɪzd/.

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 60096, this pair ranks #102,225 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Dalek vs dazed

Shared letters: ade. Private to "Dalek": kl. Private to "dazed": z.

"Dalek" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dalekadlek · daelk · dalekk · dalke · dallek · ddalek · dlaek
  • dazedadzed · daezd · dazde · dazedd · dazzed · ddazed · dzaed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dalek" and "dazed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dalek" is a noun and "dazed" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Dalek" or "dazed" show up more?
"dazed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,421 in our English list, against #35,675 for "Dalek". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dalek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dazed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,225 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dalek" and "dazed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dalek 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 #102,225 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list