# den

> English word · Noun · IPA /dɛn/ · frequency rank #7,004

## Definitions
1. A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
2. A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
3. A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
4. Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”).
5. A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
6. A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.

## Etymology
From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).

## Easily confused with
- **do** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-do)
- **Dr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dr)
- **di** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-di)
- **DJ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dj)
- **DM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dm)
- **DS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-ds)
- **DL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dl)
- **DT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dt)
- **DP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dp)
- **dw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dw)
- **Dx** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dx)
- **DG** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dg)
- **DV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dv)
- **dy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dy)
- **DQ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dq)
- **did** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-did)
- **due** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-due)
- **dog** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dog)
- **die** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-die)
- **dry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/den-vs-dry)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/den