def vs den, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“def” is an adjective and “den” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,132
“def” frequency rank: #19,112
“den” frequency rank: 51244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	def	den
Definition	algo muito bom	o, artigo definido masculino do caso acusativo singular:

Where the eye mixes def and den

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

def

3 ch

den

Visual trap between def and den

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: def is /dɛf/ while den is /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - f in “def” becomes n in “den”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

def is recorded at frequency rank #32,132, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɛf/. 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 51244, this pair ranks #13,757 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of def vs den

Shared letters: de. Private to "def": f. Private to "den": n.

"def" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "den" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "def" and "den" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "def" is an adjective and "den" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "def" or "den"?

"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,112 in our Portuguese list, against #32,132 for "def". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "def" 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 #13,757 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"def" and "den" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs def". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,757 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.