damvsdogTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,654
“dam” frequency rank
#8,326
“dog” frequency rank
42980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam dog
Definition senhora cão, cachorro

Where the eye mixes dam and dog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
dam
3 ch
dog

Look-alike desk: dam vs dog

A purely visual mix-up. dam (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and dog (/dɔɡ/) 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 42980, 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 ?). dog is at rank #8,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɔɡ/.

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 42980, this pair ranks #22,717 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs dog

Shared letters: d. Private to "dam": am. Private to "dog": go.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dog" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dam" and "dog" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɑːm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /dɔɡ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dam" vs "dog" - which ranks higher?
"dog" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,326 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,717 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "dog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dam vs dat". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #22,717 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