Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dearth” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,753
- “dear” frequency rank
- #31,948
- “dearth” frequency rank
- 33701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dearth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | High in price; expensive. | A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine. |
Where the eye mixes dear and dearth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dear runs 4 letters (CVVC) against dearth's 6 (CVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between dear and dearth
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is /dɪə/ while dearth is /dɜːθ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dear” sits inside “dearth”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #1,753, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪə/. dearth is at rank #31,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɜːθ/.
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 33701, this pair ranks #327,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dearth
Shared letters: ader. Private to "dear": -. Private to "dearth": ht.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dearth" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dear" for "dearth" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "dear" or "dearth" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dearth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #327,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dearth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dearth vs Duarte". 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 #327,132 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.