damavsdíaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,544
“dama” frequency rank
#76
“día” frequency rank
3620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dama día
Definition Una mujer noble, galanteada o distinguida Tiempo que tarda la Tierra en dar una vuelta alrededor de su eje, equivalente a 24 horas.

Where the eye mixes dama and día

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

4 ch
dama
3 ch
día

Visual trap between dama and día

A purely visual mix-up. dama ([ˈd̪ama]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dama is recorded at frequency rank #3,544, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ama]. 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 3620, this pair ranks #317,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dama vs día

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

"dama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "día" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • damaadma · daam · damma · ddama · dmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dama" for "día" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪ama] versus [ˈd̪ia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dama" or "día" show up more?
"día" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our Spanish list, against #3,544 for "dama". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dama" 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 #317,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dama" and "día" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dama vs Deva". 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 #317,923 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