degvsdelWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: deg is a verb, del is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deg” is a verb and “del” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,522
“deg” frequency rank
#3,719
“del” frequency rank
37241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deg del
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs degt Bezeichnung für ∂, ein Symbol für die partielle Ableitung – es ist nicht mit dem kleinen Delta δ zu verwechseln

Letter map: deg vs del

Shared letters muted; letters that set deg and del apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
deg
3 ch
del

Role in the sentence - deg and del

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deg is averb and delanabbrev. On the page they differ by a single letter - g in “deg” becomes l in “del”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deg is recorded at frequency rank #33,522, classified as averb, pronounced [dɛk]. del is at rank #3,719, 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 37241, this pair ranks #1,595,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deg vs del

Shared letters: de. Private to "deg": g. Private to "del": l.

"deg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "del" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deg" and "del" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deg" is a verb and "del" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "deg" or "del" show up more?
"del" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,719 in our German list, against #33,522 for "deg". 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 "deg" and "del".

  • Full dictionary entry for "deg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "del" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,595,273 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deg" and "del" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deg vs diet". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,595,273 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