dentedvsdentsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dented is a adjective, dents is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dented” is an adjective and “dents” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,361
“dented” frequency rank
#35,681
“dents” frequency rank
74042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dented dents
Definition Having teeth of a specified colour. plural of dent

Letter map: dented vs dents

Shared letters muted; letters that set dented and dents apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. dented runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against dents's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
dented
5 ch
dents

Part-of-speech tell for dented / dents

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dented is anadjective and dentsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dented is recorded at frequency rank #38,361, classified as anadj. dents is at rank #35,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛnts/.

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 74042, this pair ranks #37,566 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dented vs dents

Shared letters: dent. Private to "dented": -. Private to "dents": s.

"dented" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dents" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dented ← ddented · denetd · dennted · dentde · dentedd · dentted · detned · dneted
  • dents ← ddents · dennts · denst · dentss · dentts · detns · dnets · ednts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dented" for "dents" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dented" is an adjective and "dents" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dented" or "dents"?
"dents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,681 in our English list, against #38,361 for "dented". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dented" and "dents".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dented" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,566 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dented" and "dents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "darted vs dented". 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 #37,566 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