denvsDioWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: den is a article, Dio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,112
“den” frequency rank
#24,946
“Dio” frequency rank
44058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature den Dio
Definition o, artigo definido masculino do caso acusativo singular: Deus

Where the eye mixes den and Dio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
den
3 ch
Dio

Visual trap between den and Dio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: den is /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?) while Dio is /ˈdi.o/. 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 (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

den is recorded at frequency rank #19,112, classified as anarticle, pronounced /deːn/ ouvir^(fonte ?). Dio is at rank #24,946, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdi.o/.

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 44058, this pair ranks #21,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of den vs Dio

Shared letters: d. Private to "den": en. Private to "Dio": io.

"den" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Dio" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "den" and "Dio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "den" is an article and "Dio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "den" vs "Dio" - which ranks higher?
"den" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,112 in our Portuguese list, against #24,946 for "Dio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "den" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "den" and "Dio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs Dio". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list