Which to use
“death” and “depth” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #385
- “death” frequency rank
- #2,725
- “depth” frequency rank
- 3110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | death | depth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, nonliving state. | the vertical distance below a surface; the degree to which something is deep |
Where the eye mixes death and depth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses death with depth
A purely visual mix-up. death (/dɛθ/) and depth (/dɛpθ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “death” becomes p in “depth”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
death is recorded at frequency rank #385, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛθ/. depth is at rank #2,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛpθ/.
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 3110, this pair ranks #523,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of death vs depth
Shared letters: deht. Private to "death": a. Private to "depth": p.
"death" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "depth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "death" and "depth" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "death" vs "depth" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "death" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "depth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #523,075 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "death" and "depth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dents vs depth". 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 #523,075 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.