DelhivsdemiWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,864
“Delhi” frequency rank
#36,873
“demi” frequency rank
56737
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Delhi demi
Definition indische Metropole, zu der auch die Hauptstadt Neu-Delhi gehört halb

Where the eye mixes Delhi and demi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Delhi runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against demi's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Delhi
4 ch
demi

Why the eye confuses Delhi with demi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Delhi is [ˈdeːli] 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Delhi is recorded at frequency rank #19,864, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈdeːli]. 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 56737, this pair ranks #928,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Delhi vs demi

Shared letters: dei. Private to "Delhi": hl. Private to "demi": m.

"Delhi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "demi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Delhi ← ddelhi · dehli · delhhi · delih · dellhi · dlehi · edlhi
  • demi ← ddemi · demmi · dmei · edmi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Delhi" and "demi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Delhi" is a name and "demi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Delhi" vs "demi" - which ranks higher?
"Delhi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,864 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.

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 "Delhi" 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 #928,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Delhi" 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 #928,593 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