danovsdonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,994
“dano” frequency rank
#4,306
“don” frequency rank
9300
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dano don
Definition mal ou ofensa pessoal professor universitário (especialmente da Universidade de Oxford ou de Cambridge)

Where the eye mixes dano and don

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

4 ch
dano
3 ch
don

Why the eye confuses dano with don

A purely visual mix-up. dano (/ˈdɐ.nu/) and don (/dɒn/ ouvir ^(fonte ?)) 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 9300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dano is recorded at frequency rank #4,994, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɐ.nu/. don is at rank #4,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɒn/ ouvir ^(fonte ?).

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 9300, this pair ranks #64,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dano vs don

Shared letters: dno. Private to "dano": a. Private to "don": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • danoadno · danno · daon · ddano · dnao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dano" and "don" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɐ.nu/ versus /dɒn/ ouvir ^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dano" or "don" show up more?
"don" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,306 in our Portuguese list, against #4,994 for "dano". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "don" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dano" and "don" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dano 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 #64,173 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