Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dew” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,753
- “dear” frequency rank
- #14,511
- “dew” frequency rank
- 16264
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | High in price; expensive. | Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces. |
Where the eye mixes dear and dew
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dear with dew
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is /dɪə/ while dew is /d͡ʒuː/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16264, 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/. dew is at rank #14,511, tagged as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒuː/.
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 16264, this pair ranks #458,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dew
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "dew": w.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dew" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← daer · ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "dew" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "dear" or "dew" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dear" and "dew" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #458,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dew 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 #458,853 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.