demyvsdumTell them apart

Quick tell: demy is a noun, dum is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“demy” is a noun and “dum” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,209
“demy” frequency rank
#37,286
“dum” frequency rank
77495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demy dum
Definition Récipiendaire d'une bourse d'études au Magdalen College de l'université d'Oxford. Pendant, durant, pendant que, tandis que.

Letter map: demy vs dum

Shared letters muted; letters that set demy and dum apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
demy
3 ch
dum

Role in the sentence - demy and dum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: demy is anoun and dumapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demy is recorded at frequency rank #40,209, classified as anoun. dum is at rank #37,286, tagged as aprep, pronounced \dum\.

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 77495, this pair ranks #28,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of demy vs dum

Shared letters: dm. Private to "demy": ey. Private to "dum": u.

"demy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demyddemy · demmy · demyy · deym · dmey · edmy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "demy" for "dum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demy" is a noun and "dum" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "demy" vs "dum" - which ranks higher?
"dum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,286 in our French list, against #40,209 for "demy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "demy" and "dum".

  • Full dictionary entry for "demy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demy" and "dum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demy 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 #28,197 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list