Which to use
“dear” and “dez” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,263
- “dear” frequency rank
- #771
- “dez” frequency rank
- 21034
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | dez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | querido; amado | dotado de bons atributos |
Where the eye mixes dear and dez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dear vs dez
A purely visual mix-up. dear (/dɪɹ/) and dez (/ˈdɛʃ/) 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 21034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #20,263, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪɹ/. dez is at rank #771, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛʃ/.
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 21034, this pair ranks #49,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs dez
Shared letters: de. Private to "dear": ar. Private to "dez": z.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "dez" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← daer · ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "dez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dear" vs "dez" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dear" and "dez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "dez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dear". 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 #49,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.