Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Keep "dactyl" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.
If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.
Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "dactyl" intact in the sentence you are editing.
Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.
Read the full sentence after the swap. Keep the synonym only when the sentence becomes clearer or more precise.
Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.
After choosing a replacement for "dactyl", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.
If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "dactyl" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
4 total sentences available.
Ida was the second asteroid to be observed close-up by a spacecraft, when the Space Probe Galileo took pictures as it flew by on Aug 28, 1993. These pictures showed not only that Ida has a cratered surface, but also that it has a small moon, called Dactyl, which is about 1.6 x 1.2 km in diameter and orbiting 90 km away from the asteroid.
Source: tatoeba (6293894)
Ida's moon, Dactyl, is probably made from pieces that broke off Ida during an impact.
Source: tatoeba (6293895)
Now the Bard, glad to get an audience, […] / stuck fast with his first hexameter, / Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir. // But ere the spavin'd dactyls could be spurr'd / Into recitative, in great dismay / Both cherubim and seraphim were heard / To murmur loudly through their long array; […]
Source: wiktionary
—My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a Hellenic ring, hasn't it?
Source: wiktionary
Closest matches include digit, accent, accentuation, alexandrine, amphibrach.
Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.