daovsDavyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dao is a noun, Davy is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dao” is a noun and “Davy” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,727
“dao” frequency rank
#25,962
“Davy” frequency rank
67689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dao Davy
Definition Essence fondamentale qui coule en toutes choses dans l’univers, vivantes ou inertes, qui fonde la réalité. Prénom épicène.

Where the eye mixes dao and Davy

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

3 ch
dao
4 ch
Davy

Why the eye confuses dao with Davy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dao is \da.o\ while Davy is \da.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dao is recorded at frequency rank #41,727, classified as anoun, pronounced \da.o\. Davy is at rank #25,962, tagged as aname, pronounced \da.vi\.

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 67689, this pair ranks #62,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dao vs Davy

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dao": o. Private to "Davy": vy.

"dao" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Davy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Davyadvy · davvy · davyy · dayv · ddavy · dvay

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dao" and "Davy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dao" is a noun and "Davy" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dao" vs "Davy" - which ranks higher?
"Davy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,962 in our French list, against #41,727 for "dao". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dao" and "Davy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dao" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Davy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dao" and "Davy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dao vs dray". 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 #62,304 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list