Which to use
“demise” is a noun and “desire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,866
- “demise” frequency rank
- #2,436
- “desire” frequency rank
- 14302
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demise | desire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The conveyance or transfer of an estate, either in fee for life or for years, most commonly the latter. | To want; to wish for earnestly. |
Where the eye mixes demise and desire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between demise and desire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demise is /dɪˈmaɪz/ while desire is /dɪˈzaɪə/. 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 14302, 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/. desire is at rank #2,436, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈzaɪə/.
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 14302, this pair ranks #470,856 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of demise vs desire
Shared letters: deis. Private to "demise": m. Private to "desire": r.
"demise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "desire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "demise" for "desire" ever safe?
Which is more common, "demise" or "desire"?
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 "desire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #470,856 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demise" and "desire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demise vs demure". 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 #470,856 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.