deathvsdeltaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,207
“death” frequency rank
#12,257
“delta” frequency rank
23464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature death delta
Definition Tod, Exitus Delta

Where the eye mixes death and delta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
death
5 ch
delta

Visual trap between death and delta

A purely visual mix-up. death ([dɛθ]) and delta ([dɛl.ta]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

death is recorded at frequency rank #11,207, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɛθ]. delta is at rank #12,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dɛl.ta].

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 23464, this pair ranks #1,860,981 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of death vs delta

Shared letters: adet. Private to "death": h. Private to "delta": l.

"death" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "delta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deathdaeth · ddeath · deaht · deathh · deatth · detah · edath
  • deltaddelta · delat · dellta · deltta · detla · dleta · edlta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "death" and "delta" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([dɛθ] versus [dɛl.ta]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "death" or "delta"?
"death" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,207 in our German list, against #12,257 for "delta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "death" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,860,981 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "death" and "delta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déjà vs delta". 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 #1,860,981 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