Which to use
“damage” and “dosage” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,329
- “damage” frequency rank
- #14,516
- “dosage” frequency rank
- 15845
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | damage | dosage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact. | The administration of a medication etc, in a measured amount; dosing. |
Where the eye mixes damage and dosage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: damage vs dosage
A purely visual mix-up. damage (/ˈdæmɪd͡ʒ/) and dosage (/ˈdəʊsɪd͡ʒ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
damage is recorded at frequency rank #1,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdæmɪd͡ʒ/. dosage is at rank #14,516, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdəʊsɪd͡ʒ/.
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 15845, this pair ranks #461,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of damage vs dosage
Shared letters: adeg. Private to "damage": m. Private to "dosage": os.
"damage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dosage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "damage" and "dosage" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "damage" or "dosage"?
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 "damage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dosage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #461,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "damage" and "dosage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dosage vs dowager". 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 #461,435 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.