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PlainSpell

dare

/dɛ(ə)ɹ/verb, noun

dare is spelled D-A-R-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, dare means “To have enough courage (to do something)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dare?

Letters4: D-A-R-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dare?

Dare appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th 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 dare?

  • UK /dɛə/
  • US /dɛ(ə)ɹ/

Dare 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: En-us-dare.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dare

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

dare vs dear0 B

Sounds like: Dair (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with dare?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dare from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: read, dear, rade.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dare

  • dares present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • daring participle, present
  • dared participle, past

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

What does dare mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To have enough courage (to do something).

    I wouldn't dare (to) argue with my boss.

  2. 2

    To defy or challenge (someone to do something).

    I dare you to kiss that girl.

  3. 3

    To have enough courage to meet or do something, go somewhere, etc.; to face up to.

    Will you dare death to reach your goal?

  4. 4

    To terrify; to daunt.

  5. 5

    archaicTo drive larks to the ground by scaring them (for instance, with mirrors or hawks) so they can be caught in nets.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo stare stupidly or vacantly; to gaze as though amazed or terrified.

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo lie or crouch down in fear.

noun

  1. 1

    A challenge to prove courage.

    I did it just for a dare.

  2. 2

    The quality of daring; venturesomeness; boldness.

  3. 3

    Defiance; challenge.

  4. 4

    In the game truth or dare, the choice to perform a dare set by the other players.

    When asked truth or dare, she picked dare.

  5. 5

    A small fish, the dace

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

Dare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchoser (to have courage), défier (to defy or challenge), affronter (to brave or face up to), défi (challenge)
Germanwagen (to have courage), herausfordern (to defy or challenge), trotzen (to brave or face up to), Mutprobe (challenge)
Portugueseousar, atrever-se a (to have courage), desafiar (to defy or challenge), enfrentar (to brave or face up to), desafio (challenge)
Spanishosar, atreverse, denodarse (to have courage)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dare come from?

From Middle English durren, from Old English durran, from Proto-West Germanic *durʀan, from Proto-Germanic *durzaną (“to dare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰedʰórse (“to dare”), reduplicated stative of the root *dʰers- (“to be bold, to dare”), an *-s- extension of *dʰer- (“to hold, support”).

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

What to look up after dare