dep vs depth, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#31,132
“dep” frequency rank: #2,725
“depth” frequency rank: 33857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dep	depth
Definition	Clipping of department.	the vertical distance below a surface; the degree to which something is deep

Letter map: dep vs depth

Shared letters muted; letters that set dep and depth apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch

dep

5 ch

depth

Spelling & dictionary notes on dep vs depth

dep and depth are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dep” sits inside “depth”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dep is recorded at frequency rank #31,132, classified as anoun. depth is at rank #2,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛpθ/.

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 33857, this pair ranks #325,790 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dep vs depth

Shared letters: dep. Private to "dep": -. Private to "depth": ht.

"dep" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "depth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

depth ← ddepth · depht · deppth · depthh · deptth · detph · dpeth · edpth

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dep" and "depth" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dep” sits inside “depth”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "dep" or "depth"?

"depth" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,725 in our English list, against #31,132 for "dep". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "dep" vs "depth" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "dep" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "depth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #325,790 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"dep" and "depth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dep vs dox". 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 #325,790 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.