Which to use
“den” is an article and “dunk” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,639
- “den” frequency rank
- #44,992
- “dunk” frequency rank
- 54631
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | den | dunk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Accusatif masculin singulier de der. | Désigne un smash au jeu de basket. |
Where the eye mixes den and dunk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between den and dunk
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: den is \deːn\ while dunk is \dœŋk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
den is recorded at frequency rank #9,639, classified as anarticle, pronounced \deːn\. dunk is at rank #44,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dœŋk\.
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 54631, this pair ranks #132,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of den vs dunk
Shared letters: dn. Private to "den": e. Private to "dunk": ku.
"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "dunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dunk ← ddunk · dnuk · dukn · dunkk · dunnk · udnk
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "den" and "dunk" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "den" or "dunk" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dunk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "den" and "dunk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drunk vs dunk". 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 #132,710 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.