deavsdeathWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,825
“dea” frequency rank
#14,567
“death” frequency rank
30392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dea death
Definition Diosa. Muerte.

Where the eye mixes dea and death

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dea
5 ch
death

Visual trap between dea and death

A purely visual mix-up. dea ([ˈdɛ.a]) and death (/ˈdɛθ/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “dea” sits inside “death”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dea is recorded at frequency rank #15,825, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɛ.a]. death is at rank #14,567, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛθ/.

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 30392, this pair ranks #212,220 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dea vs death

Shared letters: ade. Private to "dea": -. Private to "death": ht.

"dea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "death" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deathdaeth · ddeath · deaht · deathh · deatth · detah · edath

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dea" and "death" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdɛ.a] versus /ˈdɛθ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dea" or "death"?
"death" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,567 in our Spanish list, against #15,825 for "dea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "death" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,220 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dea" and "death" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dea vs Deva". 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 #212,220 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