damvsdataWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,654
“dam” frequency rank
#802
“data” frequency rank
35456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam data
Definition senhora valor que indica um determinado momento no tempo

Where the eye mixes dam and data

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

3 ch
dam
4 ch
data

Why the eye confuses dam with data

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and data (/'da.tə/) 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 35456, 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 ?). data is at rank #802, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'da.tə/.

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 35456, this pair ranks #31,591 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs data

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "data": t.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dataadta · daat · datta · ddata · dtaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "data" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /'da.tə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dam" or "data" show up more?
"data" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #802 in our Portuguese list, against #34,654 for "dam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dam" and "data" 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 "data" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,591 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "data" 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 #31,591 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