den
[deːn]
The verdict
“den” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #10 in German word frequency and used as an unknown.
- #10
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des bestimmten Artikels der
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | den |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Unknown |
| IPA | [deːn] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “den” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for den is 3 letters long, classified as an unknown, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [deːn]. Corpus data places it at rank #10 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for den in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "du", "do", "dm", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is den, spelled D-E-N.
Definition
- 1Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des bestimmten Artikels der
- 2Dativ Plural des bestimmten Artikels der
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "den"?
What does "den" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "den"?
How do you pronounce "den"?
What language does "den" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “den”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is D-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [deːn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “du” - see the side-by-side comparison. den vs du
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.