Which to use
“damn” is a verb and “dem” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #845
- “damn” frequency rank
- #8,533
- “dem” frequency rank
- 9378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | damn | dem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To condemn. | Nonstandard form of them. |
Where the eye mixes damn and dem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: damn is /ˈdæm/ while dem is /dɛm/. 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
damn is recorded at frequency rank #845, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdæm/. dem is at rank #8,533, tagged as apron, pronounced /dɛm/.
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 9378, this pair ranks #497,705 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of damn vs dem
Shared letters: dm. Private to "damn": an. Private to "dem": e.
"damn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- damn ← admn · dammn · damnn · danm · ddamn · dman