Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “dem” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,457
- “dear” frequency rank
- #16,107
- “dem” frequency rank
- 51564
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cher, chère. | démonstration d’un produit pour en faire la promotion. |
Letter map: dear vs dem
Shared letters muted; letters that set dear and dem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for dear / dem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dear is anadjective and demanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #35,457, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdɪɹ\. dem is at rank #16,107, tagged as anoun.
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 51564, this pair ranks #154,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dem
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "dem": m.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dear" and "dem" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "dear" or "dem"?
What to do next
Pair "dear" vs "dem" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dear vs dray". 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 #154,077 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.