den vs dom, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“den” is an unknown and “dom” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10
“den” frequency rank: #4,972
“dom” frequency rank: 4982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	den	dom
Definition	Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des bestimmten Artikels der	Gebäude zum Wohnen; Haus, Heim

Letter map: den vs dom

Shared letters muted; letters that set den and dom apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

den

3 ch

dom

Grammar separator: den vs dom

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: den is anunknown and domanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

den is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as anunknown, pronounced [deːn]. dom is at rank #4,972, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 4982, this pair ranks #1,996,130 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of den vs dom

Shared letters: d. Private to "den": en. Private to "dom": mo.

"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "den" for "dom" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "den" is an unknown and "dom" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "den" or "dom" show up more?

"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our German list, against #4,972 for "dom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "den" and "dom".

Full dictionary entry for "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,996,130 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"den" and "dom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dom vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,996,130 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.