Which to use
“defy” is a verb and “dem” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,683
- “defy” frequency rank
- #8,533
- “dem” frequency rank
- 25216
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defy | dem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition). | Nonstandard form of them. |
Where the eye mixes defy 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: defy is /dɪˈfaɪ/ 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 25216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defy is recorded at frequency rank #16,683, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈfaɪ/. 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 25216, this pair ranks #396,024 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of defy vs dem
Shared letters: de. Private to "defy": fy. Private to "dem": m.
"defy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- defy ← ddefy · deffy · defyy · deyf · dfey · edfy