dec vs deu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“dec” is an abbrev and “deu” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,469
“dec” frequency rank: #30,509
“deu” frequency rank: 70978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dec	deu
Definition	Abkürzung für den Monat december; Dezember	zehn, die Kardinalzahl zwischen neun und elf

Letter map: dec vs deu

Shared letters muted; letters that set dec and deu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dec (CVC) and deu (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch

dec

3 ch

deu

Part-of-speech tell for dec / deu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dec is anabbrev and deuanum. On the page they differ by a single letter - c in “dec” becomes u in “deu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dec is recorded at frequency rank #40,469, classified as anabbrev. deu is at rank #30,509, tagged as anum, pronounced [dɛw].

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 70978, this pair ranks #430,186 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dec vs deu

Shared letters: de. Private to "dec": c. Private to "deu": u.

"dec" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "deu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dec" for "deu" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dec" is an abbrev and "deu" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "dec" or "deu" show up more?

"deu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,509 in our German list, against #40,469 for "dec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dec" and "deu".

Full dictionary entry for "dec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "deu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #430,186 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dec" and "deu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dec vs duch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #430,186 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.