dayvsdizWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: day is a noun, diz is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“day” is a noun and “diz” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,512
“day” frequency rank
#156
“diz” frequency rank
2668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature day diz
Definition dia (período de 24 horas) terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dizer

Where the eye mixes day and diz

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

3 ch
day
3 ch
diz

Why the eye confuses day with diz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: day is /deɪ/ while diz is /ˈʤis/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

day is recorded at frequency rank #2,512, classified as anoun, pronounced /deɪ/. diz is at rank #156, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈʤis/.

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 2668, this pair ranks #72,639 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of day vs diz

Shared letters: d. Private to "day": ay. Private to "diz": iz.

"day" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "diz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "day" and "diz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "day" is a noun and "diz" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "day" or "diz" show up more?
"diz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #156 in our Portuguese list, against #2,512 for "day". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "day" and "diz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "day" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,639 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "day" and "diz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs day". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,639 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