Which to use
“dead” is an adjective and “den” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,859
- “dead” frequency rank
- #19,112
- “den” frequency rank
- 25971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dead | den |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | morto | o, artigo definido masculino do caso acusativo singular: |
Letter map: dead vs den
Shared letters muted; letters that set dead and den apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for dead / den
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dead is anadjective and denanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dead is recorded at frequency rank #6,859, classified as anadj. den is at rank #19,112, tagged as anarticle, pronounced /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?).
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 25971, this pair ranks #43,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dead vs den
Shared letters: de. Private to "dead": a. Private to "den": n.
"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "den" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dead ← daed · ddead · deadd · deda · edad
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dead" for "den" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dead" or "den"?
Useful next steps
Pair "dead" vs "den" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "den" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dead" and "den" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs den". 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 #43,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.