delved vs dented, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“delved” is a verb and “dented” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,157
“delved” frequency rank: #38,361
“dented” frequency rank: 82518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	delved	dented
Definition	simple past and past participle of delve	Having teeth of a specified colour.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set delved and dented apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

delved

6 ch

dented

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delved is averb and dentedanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delved is recorded at frequency rank #44,157, classified as averb, pronounced /dɛlvd/. dented is at rank #38,361, tagged as anadj.

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 82518, this pair ranks #15,585 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delved vs dented

Shared letters: de. Private to "delved": lv. Private to "dented": nt.

"delved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "dented" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

delved ← ddelved · delevd · dellved · delvde · delvedd · delvved · devled · dleved
dented ← ddented · denetd · dennted · dentde · dentedd · dentted · detned · dneted

Frequency comparison

delved#44,157

dented#38,361

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delved" and "dented" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delved" is a verb and "dented" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "delved" or "dented"?

"dented" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,361 in our English list, against #44,157 for "delved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering delved vs dented

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “delved”; for an adjective, it's “dented”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “delved” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable