Which to use
“dele” is a contraction and “deus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #261
- “dele” frequency rank
- #128
- “deus” frequency rank
- 389
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dele | deus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição de com o pronome pessoal ele | numa religião, ser sobrenatural de poderes sobre-humanos |
Where the eye mixes dele and deus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dele vs deus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dele is /ˈde.lɨ/ while deus is /ˈdews/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dele is recorded at frequency rank #261, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.lɨ/. deus is at rank #128, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdews/.
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 389, this pair ranks #75,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dele vs deus
Shared letters: de. Private to "dele": l. Private to "deus": su.
"dele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "deus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dele" for "deus" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dele" or "deus"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dele" and "deus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dele" 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 #75,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dele" and "deus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dele vs devi". 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 #75,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.