deposevsdepotWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: depose is a verb, depot is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“depose” is a verb and “depot” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,107
“depose” frequency rank
#7,674
“depot” frequency rank
50781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature depose depot
Definition To put down; to lay down; to deposit; to lay aside; to put away. A storage facility, in particular, a warehouse.

Where the eye mixes depose and depot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. depose runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against depot's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
depose
5 ch
depot

Visual trap between depose and depot

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: depose is /dɪˈpəʊz/ while depot is /ˈdɛpəʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

depose is recorded at frequency rank #43,107, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈpəʊz/. depot is at rank #7,674, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛpəʊ/.

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 50781, this pair ranks #171,203 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of depose vs depot

Shared letters: deop. Private to "depose": s. Private to "depot": t.

"depose" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "depot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • depose ← ddepose · deopse · depoes · deposse · deppose · depsoe · dpeose · edpose
  • depot ← ddepot · deopt · depott · deppot · depto · dpeot · edpot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "depose" and "depot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "depose" is a verb and "depot" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "depose" or "depot"?
"depot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,674 in our English list, against #43,107 for "depose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "depose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "depot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,203 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "depose" and "depot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depose vs Devos". 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 #171,203 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