DemsvsdenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Dems” and “den” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,032
“Dems” frequency rank
#7,004
“den” frequency rank
16036
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dems den
Definition plural of Dem A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.

Where the eye mixes Dems and den

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Dems
3 ch
den

Visual trap between Dems and den

A purely visual mix-up. Dems (/dɛmz/) and den (/dɛn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dems is recorded at frequency rank #9,032, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛmz/. den is at rank #7,004, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛn/.

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 16036, this pair ranks #460,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Dems vs den

Shared letters: de. Private to "Dems": ms. Private to "den": n.

"Dems" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "den" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Demsddems · demms · demss · desm · dmes · edms

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dems" and "den" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dɛmz/ versus /dɛn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Dems" vs "den" - which ranks higher?
"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,004 in our English list, against #9,032 for "Dems". 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 "Dems" and "den" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dems" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "den" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #460,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dems" and "den" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dems vs derp". 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 #460,326 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