delvedvsDenverConfusable pair

Quick tell: delved is a verb, Denver is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,157
“delved” frequency rank
#4,843
“Denver” frequency rank
49000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delved Denver
Definition simple past and past participle of delve A number of places in the United States:

Where the eye mixes delved and Denver

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. delved and Denver follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
delved
6 ch
Denver

Look-alike desk: delved vs Denver

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delved is /dɛlvd/ while Denver is /ˈdɛnvɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49000, 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/. Denver is at rank #4,843, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈdɛnvɚ/.

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 49000, this pair ranks #187,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delved vs Denver

Shared letters: dev. Private to "delved": l. Private to "Denver": nr.

"delved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Denver" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delved ← ddelved · delevd · dellved · delvde · delvedd · delvved · devled · dleved
  • Denver ← ddenver · denevr · dennver · denverr · denvre · denvver · devner · dnever

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "delved" and "Denver" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delved" is a verb and "Denver" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "delved" or "Denver" show up more?
"Denver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,843 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "delved" and "Denver" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Denver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delved" and "Denver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delved vs delves". 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 #187,787 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