damvsdanoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dam” and “dano” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,654
“dam” frequency rank
#4,994
“dano” frequency rank
39648
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam dano
Definition senhora mal ou ofensa pessoal

Where the eye mixes dam and dano

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dam runs 3 letters (CVC) against dano's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dam
4 ch
dano

Look-alike desk: dam vs dano

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and dano (/ˈdɐ.nu/) 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 39648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dam is recorded at frequency rank #34,654, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?). dano is at rank #4,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɐ.nu/.

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 39648, this pair ranks #26,568 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs dano

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "dano": no.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dano ← adno · danno · daon · ddano · dnao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dam" and "dano" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈdɐ.nu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dam" vs "dano" - which ranks higher?
"dano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,994 in our Portuguese list, against #34,654 for "dam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dano" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,568 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "dano" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dam vs dat". 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 #26,568 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list