degasvsdensWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: degas is a verb, dens is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“degas” is a verb and “dens” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,085
“degas” frequency rank
#34,854
“dens” frequency rank
76939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature degas dens
Definition To remove the gas from. plural of den

Letter map: degas vs dens

Shared letters muted; letters that set degas and dens apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. degas runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against dens's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
degas
4 ch
dens

Part-of-speech tell for degas / dens

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: degas is averb and densanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

degas is recorded at frequency rank #42,085, classified as averb. dens is at rank #34,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛnz/.

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 76939, this pair ranks #28,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of degas vs dens

Shared letters: des. Private to "degas": ag. Private to "dens": n.

"degas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • degasddegas · deags · degass · deggas · degsa · dgeas · edgas
  • densddens · denns · denss · desn · dnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "degas" for "dens" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "degas" is a verb and "dens" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "degas" vs "dens" - which ranks higher?
"dens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,854 in our English list, against #42,085 for "degas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "degas" and "dens".

  • Full dictionary entry for "degas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "degas" and "dens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degas vs dregs". 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 #28,704 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list