densevsdeusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dense” and “deus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,094
“dense” frequency rank
#23,168
“deus” frequency rank
31262
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dense deus
Definition Épais, compact, dont les parties nous paraissent plus épaisses ou plus serrées. Deux.

Where the eye mixes dense and deus

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

5 ch
dense
4 ch
deus

Visual trap between dense and deus

A purely visual mix-up. dense (\dɑ̃s\) and deus (\dœs\) 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 31262, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dense is recorded at frequency rank #8,094, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɑ̃s\. deus is at rank #23,168, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dœs\.

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 31262, this pair ranks #304,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dense vs deus

Shared letters: des. Private to "dense": n. Private to "deus": u.

"dense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "deus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • denseddense · denes · dennse · densse · desne · dnese · ednse
  • deusddeus · desu · deuss · edus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dense" and "deus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɑ̃s\ versus \dœs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dense" vs "deus" - which ranks higher?
"dense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,094 in our French list, against #23,168 for "deus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dense" and "deus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #304,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dense" and "deus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deus vs dust". 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 #304,905 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