Dave
/deɪv/
"dave" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Dave” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,357 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #3,357
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A diminutive of the male given name David, also used as a formal given name.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Dave |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /deɪv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,357 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Dave” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Dave is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /deɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,357 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for Dave, with forms such as "adve", "daev", and "davve". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "de", "DV", "day", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is Dave, spelled D-A-V-E.
Definition
- 1A diminutive of the male given name David, also used as a formal given name.
- 2A surname from Gujarati from Gujarati દવે (dave, “(one who has studied) two Vedas”).
- 3A female given name.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: adve,daev,davve,ddave,dvae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Dave - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Dave”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-A-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /deɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “de” - see the side-by-side comparison. Dave vs de
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.