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da

/dɑː/noun, interjection, article

da is spelled D-A: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, da means “Father” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of da is das or das..

How many letters and syllables are in da?

Letters2: D-A
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,785th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is da?

Da appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce da?

  • /dɑː/

As an article (“Pronunciation spelling of the”): /diː/, /dʌ/, /də/.

Da has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-da.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-da2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of da

  • das plural
  • das. plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does da mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    IrelandScotlandFather.

  2. 2

    slangYes; an affirmative response.

interjection

  1. 1

    slangYes.

  2. 2

    A meaningless syllable used when singing a tune or indicating a rhythm.

    You know that tune that goes "da da da di-dum di-dum"?

noun

as DA
  1. 1

    Initialism of district attorney.

  2. 2

    Initialism of duck's arse (“type of haircut”).

  3. 3

    Initialism of Doctor of Arts.

  4. 4

    Initialism of domain administration.

  5. 5

    Initialism of dairy association.

  6. 6

    Initialism of dopamine.

  7. 7

    Initialism of domoic acid.

  8. 8

    Initialism of descending aorta.

adjective

as DA
  1. 1

    Initialism of double action.

verb

as DA
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of disassociate.

article

  1. 1

    Pronunciation spelling of the.

    Da New York Times

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Where does da come from?

From child language; compare dad and dada.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after da