de
/ˈdɛ/
"de" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“de” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #582 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #582
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | de |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɛ/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #582 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “de” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for de is 2 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɛ/. Corpus data places it at rank #582 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for de in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "do", "Dr", "di", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Russian дэ (dɛ). The correct English form is de, spelled D-E.
Definition
- 1The name of the Cyrillic script letter Д / д.
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian дэ (dɛ).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “de”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɛ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “do” - see the side-by-side comparison. de vs do
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.