Which to use
“demise” is a noun and “depose” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,866
- “demise” frequency rank
- #43,107
- “depose” frequency rank
- 54973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demise | depose |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The conveyance or transfer of an estate, either in fee for life or for years, most commonly the latter. | To put down; to lay down; to deposit; to lay aside; to put away. |
Where the eye mixes demise and depose
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. demise and depose follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between demise and depose
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demise is /dɪˈmaɪz/ while depose is /dɪˈpəʊz/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
demise is recorded at frequency rank #11,866, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈmaɪz/. depose is at rank #43,107, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈpəʊz/.
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 54973, this pair ranks #137,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of demise vs depose
Shared letters: des. Private to "demise": im. Private to "depose": op.
"demise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "depose" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "demise" and "depose" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "demise" or "depose" show up more?
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 "demise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "depose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #137,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demise" and "depose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depose vs Devos". 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 #137,089 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.