Which to use
“dams” and “duds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,503
- “dams” frequency rank
- #39,792
- “duds” frequency rank
- 54295
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dams | duds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dam | plural of dud |
Where the eye mixes dams and duds
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dams and duds follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dams with duds
A purely visual mix-up. dams (/dæmz/) and duds (/dʌdz/) 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 54295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dams is recorded at frequency rank #14,503, classified as anoun, pronounced /dæmz/. duds is at rank #39,792, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌdz/.
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 54295, this pair ranks #142,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dams vs duds
Shared letters: ds. Private to "dams": am. Private to "duds": u.
"dams" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "duds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dams" for "duds" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dams" vs "duds" - which ranks higher?
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 "dams" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #142,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dams" and "duds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dabs vs duds". 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 #142,200 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.