Which to use
“dead” is an adjective and “ded” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #652
- “dead” frequency rank
- #39,281
- “ded” frequency rank
- 39933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dead | ded |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.) | A person who inflicts dedovshchina (a kind of hazing ritual). |
Letter map: dead vs ded
Shared letters muted; letters that set dead and ded apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for dead / ded
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dead is anadjective and dedanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dead is recorded at frequency rank #652, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɛd/. ded is at rank #39,281, tagged as anoun.
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 39933, this pair ranks #272,201 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dead vs ded
Shared letters: de. Private to "dead": a. Private to "ded": -.
"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ded" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dead ← daed · ddead · deadd · deda · edad
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dead" for "ded" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dead" vs "ded" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "dead" and "ded". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #272,201 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dead" and "ded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ded vs dox". 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 #272,201 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.