Daemon or demon?
daemon is a noun meaning “A minor deity or divinity”; demon is a noun meaning “An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil”. They sound the same (/ˈdiː.mən/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) demon is about 18 times as common as daemon.
What is the difference between daemon and demon?
| daemon | demon | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A minor deity or divinity A muse, a personified source of inspiration, especially one that also causes anguish A process (a running program) that does not have a controlling terminal | An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity |
| Example | none recorded | The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth |
| Forms | daemons, daemones daemons | demons |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdiː.mən/ /ˈdiːmən/ /ˈdeɪmən/ | /ˈdiː.mən/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 11 times per million words |
Sources: daemon and demon in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of daemon and demon
daemon
- 1
A minor deity or divinity
- 2
A process (a running program) that does not have a controlling terminal
- 3
A muse, a personified source of inspiration, especially one that also causes anguish
- 4
An idea depicted as an entity
demon
- 1
An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil
- 2
Acronym of distinct electron motion particle: a quasiparticle, a type of massless neutral electron excitation associated with superconductivity
- 3
Alternative spelling of daemon
- 4
Alternative letter-case form of demon (“card game”)
- 5
A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity
- 6
A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child
- 7
A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw
The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth
- 8
A person's fears or anxieties
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, daemon or demon?
daemon appears about once in every 2 million words; demon 11 times per million words.
daemon about once in every 2 million wordsdemon 11 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search daemon vs demon?
“daemon vs demon” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“demon vs daemon”, “daemon or demon”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.