dancesvsDaneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dances” and “Dane” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,729
“dances” frequency rank
#15,597
“Dane” frequency rank
25326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dances Dane
Definition plural of dance A person of Danish descent.

Where the eye mixes dances and Dane

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dances
4 ch
Dane

Visual trap between dances and Dane

A purely visual mix-up. dances (/ˈdɑːnsɪz/) and Dane (/deɪn/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dances is recorded at frequency rank #9,729, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɑːnsɪz/. Dane is at rank #15,597, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪn/.

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 25326, this pair ranks #395,154 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dances vs Dane

Shared letters: aden. Private to "dances": cs. Private to "Dane": -.

"dances" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Dane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dancesadnces · dacnes · dancces · dancess · dancse · danecs · dannces · ddances
  • Daneadne · danne · ddane · dnae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dances" and "Dane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɑːnsɪz/ versus /deɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dances" or "Dane"?
"dances" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,729 in our English list, against #15,597 for "Dane". 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 "dances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,154 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dances" and "Dane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dane vs DNP". 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 #395,154 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