damvsdeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,288
“dam” frequency rank
#247
“de” frequency rank
24535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dam de
Definition Dekameter nach ISO 639-1 für Deutsch

Letter map: dam vs de

Shared letters muted; letters that set dam and de apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
dam
2 ch
de

Spelling & dictionary notes on dam vs de

dam and de are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dam is recorded at frequency rank #24,288, classified as anabbrev. de is at rank #247, tagged as anabbrev.

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 24535, this pair ranks #1,846,200 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dam vs de

Shared letters: d. Private to "dam": am. Private to "de": e.

"dam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "de" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dam" and "de" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "dam" or "de" show up more?
"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #247 in our German list, against #24,288 for "dam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "dam" vs "de" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "de" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,846,200 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dam" and "de" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dam vs duc". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,846,200 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list