Dam or damn?
dam is a noun meaning “A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of…”; damn is a verb meaning “To condemn”. Use dam as a noun and damn as a verb (damn is also a noun: “The word "damn" employed as a curse”). They sound the same (/ˈdæm/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) damn is about 8.3 times as common as dam.
What is the difference between dam and damn?
| dam | damn | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, interjection, adjective, adverb | verb, adjective, adverb, interjection, noun |
| Meaning | A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water… The water reservoir resulting from placing such a structure To block the flow of water | To condemn To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment |
| Example | A dam is often an essential source of water to farmers of hilly country | The official position is that anyone who does this will be damned for all eternity |
| Forms | dams | damns, damning, damned |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdæm/ [ˈdæm] ~ [ˈdam] /ˈdam/ | /ˈdæm/ [ˈdæm] ~ [ˈdam] /ˈdam/ |
| In writing | 15 times per million words | 123 times per million words |
Sources: dam and damn in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of dam and damn
dam
- 1
A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulated…
A dam is often an essential source of water to farmers of hilly country
- 2
To block the flow of water
- 3
Female parent, mother, generally regarding breeding of animals
- 4
IndiaAn obsolete Indian copper coin, equal to a fortieth of a rupee
- 5
slangDamn
- 6
slangDamn
- 7
Initialism of digital asset management
- 8
Pronunciation spelling of damn
damn
- 1
To condemn
The official position is that anyone who does this will be damned for all eternity
- 2
slangGeneric intensifier. Fucking; bloody
Shut the damn door!
- 3
slangVery; extremely
That car was going damn fast!
- 4
slangvulgarUsed to express anger, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, contempt or surprise, etc. See also dammit
- 5
slangThe word "damn" employed as a curse
He said a few damns and left
- 6
Abbreviation of diaminomaleonitrile
- 7
To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment
- 8
slangA small, negligible quantity, being of little value; a whit or jot
The new hires aren't worth a damn
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, dam or damn?
dam appears 15 times per million words; damn 123 times per million words.
dam 15 times per million wordsdamn 123 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search dam vs damn?
“dam vs damn” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“damn vs dam”, “dam or damn”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.