Which to use
“den” and “dyes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,004
- “den” frequency rank
- #19,824
- “dyes” frequency rank
- 26828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | den | dyes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | plural of dye |
Where the eye mixes den and dyes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between den and dyes
A purely visual mix-up. den (/dɛn/) and dyes (/daɪz/) 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 26828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
den is recorded at frequency rank #7,004, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛn/. dyes is at rank #19,824, tagged as anoun, pronounced /daɪz/.
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 26828, this pair ranks #383,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of den vs dyes
Shared letters: de. Private to "den": n. Private to "dyes": sy.
"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dyes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dyes ← ddyes · deys · dyess · dyse · dyyes · ydes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "den" and "dyes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "den" or "dyes"?
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 "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dyes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "den" and "dyes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dikes vs dyes". 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 #383,733 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.