Which to use
“dares” and “date” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,771
- “dares” frequency rank
- #605
- “date” frequency rank
- 22376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dares | date |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dare | The fruit of the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, somewhat in the shape of an olive, containing a soft, sweet pulp and enclosing a hard kernel. |
Where the eye mixes dares and date
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dares and date
A purely visual mix-up. dares (/dɛəz/) and date (/deɪt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dares is recorded at frequency rank #21,771, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛəz/. date is at rank #605, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪt/.
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 22376, this pair ranks #417,035 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dares vs date
Shared letters: ade. Private to "dares": rs. Private to "date": t.
"dares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "date" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dares" for "date" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dares" vs "date" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "date" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,035 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dares" and "date" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dares vs dikes". 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 #417,035 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.