Which to use
“damas” and “dates” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,304
- “damas” frequency rank
- #3,603
- “dates” frequency rank
- 12907
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | damas | dates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Pluriel de date. |
Where the eye mixes damas and dates
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. damas and dates follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between damas and dates
A purely visual mix-up. damas (\da.ma\) and dates (\dat\) 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 12907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
damas is recorded at frequency rank #9,304, classified as anoun, pronounced \da.ma\. dates is at rank #3,603, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dat\.
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 12907, this pair ranks #403,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of damas vs dates
Shared letters: ads. Private to "damas": m. Private to "dates": et.
"damas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "dates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "damas" for "dates" ever safe?
Frequency check: "damas" vs "dates" - which ranks higher?
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 "damas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "damas" and "dates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damage vs damas". 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 #403,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.