dam
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "dam", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "dam" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "dam" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
dam is aEnglishnoun. It means: A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulat... Pronounced /dæm/. It ranks #5,410 in English word frequency. Often confused with do and Dr.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dam |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dæm/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,410 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dam is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dæm/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,410 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for dam in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "do", "Dr", "de", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dam, from Old English *damm, from Proto-West Germanic *damm, from Proto-Germanic *dammaz. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is dam, spelled D-A-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A structure placed across a flowing body of water to stop the flow or part of the flow, generally for purposes such as retaining or diverting some of the water or retarding the release of accumulated water to avoid abrupt flooding.
- 2The water reservoir resulting from placing such a structure.
- 3A device to prevent a tooth from getting wet during dental work, consisting of a rubber sheet held with a band.
- 4A reservoir.
- 5A firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.
Etymology
From Middle English dam, from Old English *damm, from Proto-West Germanic *damm, from Proto-Germanic *dammaz.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #5,410 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: