daysvsdeyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#218
“days” frequency rank
#26,753
“dey” frequency rank
26971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature days dey
Definition plural of day A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.

Where the eye mixes days and dey

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

4 ch
days
3 ch
dey

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. days (/ˈdeɪz/) and dey (/deɪ/) 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 26971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

days is recorded at frequency rank #218, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdeɪz/. dey is at rank #26,753, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪ/.

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 26971, this pair ranks #382,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of days vs dey

Shared letters: dy. Private to "days": as. Private to "dey": e.

"days" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "dey" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • daysadys · dasy · dayss · dayys · ddays · dyas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "days" and "dey" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdeɪz/ versus /deɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "days" or "dey"?
"days" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #218 in our English list, against #26,753 for "dey". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "days" and "dey". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "days" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "days" and "dey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dey vs dox". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list