Which to use
“dess” is an unknown and “Doms” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,817
- “dess” frequency rank
- #37,455
- “Doms” frequency rank
- 86272
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dess | Doms |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 3. Person Utrum Singular Genitiv des Personalpronomens den | Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Dom |
Where the eye mixes dess and Doms
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dess and Doms follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: dess vs Doms
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dess is [ˈdɛ̝sː] while Doms is [doːms]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dess is recorded at frequency rank #48,817, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈdɛ̝sː]. Doms is at rank #37,455, tagged as anoun, pronounced [doːms].
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 86272, this pair ranks #96,163 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dess vs Doms
Shared letters: ds. Private to "dess": e. Private to "Doms": mo.
"dess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Doms" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dess" for "Doms" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "dess" or "Doms" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Doms" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,163 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dess" and "Doms" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dess vs dew". 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 #96,163 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.