dashvsdayWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,982
“dash” frequency rank
#2,512
“day” frequency rank
24494
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dash day
Definition travessão, hífen dia (período de 24 horas)

Where the eye mixes dash and day

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

4 ch
dash
3 ch
day

Why the eye confuses dash with day

A purely visual mix-up. dash (/ˈdæʃ/) and day (/deɪ/) 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 24494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dash is recorded at frequency rank #21,982, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdæʃ/. day is at rank #2,512, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪ/.

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 24494, this pair ranks #45,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dash vs day

Shared letters: ad. Private to "dash": hs. Private to "day": y.

"dash" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "day" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dashadsh · dahs · dashh · dassh · ddash · dsah

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dash" and "day" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdæʃ/ versus /deɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dash" or "day"?
"day" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,512 in our Portuguese list, against #21,982 for "dash". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dash" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "day" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dash" and "day" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dash 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 #45,116 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