Which to use
“dam” is a noun and “dear” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,654
- “dam” frequency rank
- #20,263
- “dear” frequency rank
- 54917
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dam | dear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | senhora | querido; amado |
Where the eye mixes dam and dear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dam runs 3 letters (CVC) against dear's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dam and dear
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dam is /dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) while dear is /dɪɹ/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54917, 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 ?). dear is at rank #20,263, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪɹ/.
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 54917, this pair ranks #10,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dam vs dear
Shared letters: ad. Private to "dam": m. Private to "dear": er.
"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← daer · ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dam" for "dear" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dam" vs "dear" - 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 "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dam" and "dear" 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 #10,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.