Which to use
“demure” is an adjective and “desire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,286
- “demure” frequency rank
- #2,436
- “desire” frequency rank
- 51722
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demure | desire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Modest, quiet, reserved, or serious. | To want; to wish for earnestly. |
Where the eye mixes demure and desire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. demure and desire follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: demure vs desire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demure is /dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/ 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
demure is recorded at frequency rank #49,286, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/. 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 51722, this pair ranks #163,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of demure vs desire
Shared letters: der. Private to "demure": mu. Private to "desire": is.
"demure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "desire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "demure" for "desire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "demure" vs "desire" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "demure" 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 #163,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demure" and "desire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defuse 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 #163,091 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.