Which to use
“demon” is a noun and “demonic” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,458
- “demon” frequency rank
- #18,803
- “demonic” frequency rank
- 25261
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demon | demonic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An evil supernatural being. | Pertaining to demons or evil spirits; demoniac. |
Where the eye mixes demon and demonic
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses demon with demonic
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demon is /ˈdiː.mən/ while demonic is /dɪˈmɒnɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “demon” sits inside “demonic”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
demon is recorded at frequency rank #6,458, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdiː.mən/. demonic is at rank #18,803, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈmɒnɪk/.
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 25261, this pair ranks #395,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of demon vs demonic
Shared letters: demno. Private to "demon": -. Private to "demonic": ci.
"demon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "demonic" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "demon" for "demonic" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "demon" or "demonic" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "demon" and "demonic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "demon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "demonic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #395,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demon" and "demonic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demonic vs demonize". 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 #395,677 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.