daftvsdartWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: daft is a adjective, dart is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“daft” is an adjective and “dart” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,961
“daft” frequency rank
#46,097
“dart” frequency rank
72058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature daft dart
Definition Stupide, pas très intelligent. Sorte de papier de pâte grise.

Where the eye mixes daft and dart

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

4 ch
daft
4 ch
dart

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: daft is \dɑːft\ while dart is \daʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - f in “daft” becomes r in “dart”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

daft is recorded at frequency rank #25,961, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɑːft\. dart is at rank #46,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced \daʁ\.

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 72058, this pair ranks #45,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of daft vs dart

Shared letters: adt. Private to "daft": f. Private to "dart": r.

"daft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • daftadft · dafft · daftt · datf · ddaft · dfat
  • dartadrt · darrt · dartt · datr · ddart · drat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "daft" and "dart" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "daft" is an adjective and "dart" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "daft" or "dart"?
"daft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,961 in our French list, against #46,097 for "dart". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "daft" and "dart". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "daft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "daft" and "dart" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dart vs dust". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list