Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dec” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,506
- “dear” frequency rank
- #40,469
- “dec” frequency rank
- 70975
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dec |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lieb, teuer, süß, entzückend, reizend, herzig | Abkürzung für den Monat december; Dezember |
Letter map: dear vs dec
Shared letters muted; letters that set dear and dec apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - dear and dec
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dear is anadjective and decanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #30,506, classified as anadj, pronounced [diɹ]. dec is at rank #40,469, 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 70975, this pair ranks #430,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dec
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "dec": c.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dec" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "dec" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "dear" or "dec" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "dear" and "dec". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dec vs duch". 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 #430,268 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.