damagevsdamasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,096
“damage” frequency rank
#9,304
“damas” frequency rank
55400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature damage damas
Definition Action de damer. Étoffe de soie à fleurs ou à dessins en relief où le satin et le taffetas sont mêlés ensemble et qui se fabriquait originairement à Damas, en Syrie ; les fleurs sont en satin à l’endroit et forment le taffetas et le fond de l’envers, et le taffetas qui fait le fond à l’endroit est le satin de l’envers.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set damage and damas apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
damage
5 ch
damas

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. damage (\da.maʒ\) and damas (\da.ma\) 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 55400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

damage is recorded at frequency rank #46,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \da.maʒ\. damas is at rank #9,304, tagged as anoun, pronounced \da.ma\.

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 55400, this pair ranks #127,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of damage vs damas

Shared letters: adm. Private to "damage": eg. Private to "damas": s.

"damage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "damas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • damageadmage · daamge · damaeg · damagge · damgae · dammage · ddamage · dmaage
  • damasadmas · daams · damass · dammas · damsa · ddamas · dmaas

Frequency comparison

damage#46,096
damas#9,304

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "damage" and "damas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\da.maʒ\ versus \da.ma\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "damage" or "damas"?
"damas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,304 in our French list, against #46,096 for "damage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering damage vs damas

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “damage” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list