damnvsdenTell them apart

Which to use

“damn” and “den” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,281
“damn” frequency rank
#2,020
“den” frequency rank
43301
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature damn den
Definition Condenar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de dar o de darse.

Where the eye mixes damn and den

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
damn
3 ch
den

Why the eye confuses damn with den

A purely visual mix-up. damn (/dæm/) and den ([ˈd̪ẽn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

damn is recorded at frequency rank #41,281, classified as averb, pronounced /dæm/. den is at rank #2,020, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪ẽn].

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 43301, this pair ranks #143,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of damn vs den

Shared letters: dn. Private to "damn": am. Private to "den": e.

"damn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "den" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • damnadmn · dammn · damnn · danm · ddamn · dman

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "damn" and "den" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dæm/ versus [ˈd̪ẽn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "damn" or "den"?
"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,020 in our Spanish list, against #41,281 for "damn". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "damn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "den" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "damn" and "den" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damn vs dañen". 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 #143,432 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list