deem
/diːm/
"deem" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“deem” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,536 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #18,536
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account.
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 | deem |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /diːm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #18,536 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “deem” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for deem is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /diːm/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,536 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for deem, with forms such as "ddeem", "deemm", and "deme". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "DM", "due", "die", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dēmen (“to judge; to criticize, condemn; to impose a penalty on, sentence; to direct, order; to believe, think, deem”), from Old English dēman (“to decide, decree, deem”), from Proto-West Germanic *dōmijan, from Proto-Germanic *dōmijaną … The correct English form is deem, spelled D-E-E-M.
Definition
- 1To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account.
- 2To think, judge, or have or hold as an opinion; to decide or believe on consideration; to suppose.
- 3To judge, to pass judgment on; to doom, to sentence.
- 4To adjudge, to decree.
- 5To dispense (justice); to administer (law).
Etymology
From Middle English dēmen (“to judge; to criticize, condemn; to impose a penalty on, sentence; to direct, order; to believe, think, deem”), from Old English dēman (“to decide, decree, deem”), from Proto-West Germanic *dōmijan, from Proto-Germanic *dōmijaną (“to judge, think”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”). The word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål dømme (“to judge”), Dutch doemen (“to condemn, foredoom”), North Frisian dema (“to judge, recognise”), Norwegian Nynorsk døma (“to judge”), Swedish döma (“to judge, sentence, condemn”), Finnish tuomita (“to judge”). It is also related to doom.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddeem,deemm,deme,edem
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of deem - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “deem”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-E-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /diːm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “DM” - see the side-by-side comparison. deem vs DM
- 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.