dartvsdayConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,505
“dart” frequency rank
#120
“day” frequency rank
14625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dart day
Definition A pointed missile weapon, intended to be thrown by the hand; for example, a short lance or javelin. The time when the Sun is above the horizon and it lights the sky.

Where the eye mixes dart and day

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dart
3 ch
day

Why the eye confuses dart with day

A purely visual mix-up. dart (/dɑːt/) and day (/deɪ̯/) 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 14625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dart is recorded at frequency rank #14,505, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɑːt/. day is at rank #120, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪ̯/.

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 14625, this pair ranks #468,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dart vs day

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dart": rt. Private to "day": y.

"dart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "day" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dartadrt · darrt · dartt · datr · ddart · drat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dart" for "day" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dɑːt/ versus /deɪ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dart" or "day"?
"day" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #120 in our English list, against #14,505 for "dart". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "dart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "day" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #468,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dart" and "day" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dart vs derp". 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 #468,901 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