damvsdamasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dam” and “damas” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#33,524
“dam” frequency rank
#5,487
“damas” frequency rank
39011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam damas
Definition Presa, dique Forma del plural de dama.

Where the eye mixes dam and damas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dam
5 ch
damas

Why the eye confuses dam with damas

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dæm/) and damas ([ˈd̪amas]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “dam” sits inside “damas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dam is recorded at frequency rank #33,524, classified as anoun, pronounced /dæm/. damas is at rank #5,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪amas].

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 39011, this pair ranks #166,860 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs damas

Shared letters: adm. Private to "dam": -. Private to "damas": s.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "damas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • damasadmas · daams · damass · dammas · damsa · ddamas · dmaas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "damas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dæm/ versus [ˈd̪amas]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dam" or "damas"?
"damas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,487 in our Spanish list, against #33,524 for "dam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dam" and "damas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "damas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,860 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "damas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dade vs dam". 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

Confusion rank #166,860 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list