degvsdemiTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,522
“deg” frequency rank
#36,873
“demi” frequency rank
70395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deg demi
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs degt halb

Where the eye mixes deg and demi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. deg runs 3 letters (CVC) against demi's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
deg
4 ch
demi

Visual trap between deg and demi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deg is [dɛk] while demi is [də.mi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70395, 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]. demi is at rank #36,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced [də.mi].

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 70395, this pair ranks #447,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of deg vs demi

Shared letters: de. Private to "deg": g. Private to "demi": im.

"deg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "demi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demi ← ddemi · demmi · dmei · edmi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deg" and "demi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deg" is a verb and "demi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deg" or "demi"?
"deg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,522 in our German list, against #36,873 for "demi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "deg" and "demi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #447,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deg" and "demi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demi vs dess". 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 #447,661 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