damvsdocTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,524
“dam” frequency rank
#8,645
“doc” frequency rank
42169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam doc
Definition Presa, dique Persona que ejerce la Medicina.

Where the eye mixes dam and doc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
dam
3 ch
doc

Look-alike desk: dam vs doc

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dæm/) and doc ([ˈd̪ok]) 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 42169, 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/. doc is at rank #8,645, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ok].

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 42169, this pair ranks #149,735 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs doc

Shared letters: d. Private to "dam": am. Private to "doc": co.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "doc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "doc" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dæm/ versus [ˈd̪ok]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dam" or "doc"?
"doc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,645 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,735 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "doc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dade vs dam". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #149,735 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