Skip to main content
PlainSpell

deem

/dim/verb

deem is spelled D-E-E-M: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, deem means “To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in deem?

Letters4: D-E-E-M
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.2 times per million words; the 18,537th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is deem?

Deem appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,537th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce deem?

  • UK /diːm/
  • US /dim/

Deem has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-deem.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with deem?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as deem from its last stressed vowel (/im/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: meed, deme.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of deem

  • deems present, singular, he/she/it
  • deeming participle, present
  • deemed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does deem mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account.

    She deemed his efforts insufficient.

  2. 2

    To think, judge, or have or hold as an opinion; to decide or believe on consideration; to suppose.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo judge, to pass judgment on; to doom, to sentence.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo adjudge, to decree.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo dispense (justice); to administer (law).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteAn opinion, a judgment, a surmise.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Deem in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchestimer, croire (to hold in belief or estimation), considérer (to have or hold as an opinion)
Germanhalten, erachten (to hold in belief or estimation), ansehen (to have or hold as an opinion)
Portugueseconsiderar, estimar (to hold in belief or estimation)
Spanishconsiderar, concluir, estimar, identificar (to hold in belief or estimation), juzgar (to have or hold as an opinion)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does deem come from?

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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after deem