damvsdíaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#33,524
“dam” frequency rank
#76
“día” frequency rank
33600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam día
Definition Presa, dique Tiempo que tarda la Tierra en dar una vuelta alrededor de su eje, equivalente a 24 horas.

Where the eye mixes dam and día

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dam
3 ch
día

Why the eye confuses dam with día

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dæm/) and día ([ˈd̪ia]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33600, 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/. día is at rank #76, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ia].

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 33600, this pair ranks #195,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs día

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "día": í.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "día" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "día" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dæm/ versus [ˈd̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dam" vs "día" - which ranks higher?
"día" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our Spanish list, against #33,524 for "dam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "día" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "día" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dade vs dam". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #195,923 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