Which to use
“desde” is a preposition and “desdém” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #155
- “desde” frequency rank
- #29,677
- “desdém” frequency rank
- 29832
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desde | desdém |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | a começar de; a partir de | desprezo com orgulho |
Where the eye mixes desde and desdém
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. desde runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against desdém's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: desde vs desdém
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desde is /ˈdeʒ.dɨ/ while desdém is /dɨʒ.ˈdɐ̃j̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desde is recorded at frequency rank #155, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈdeʒ.dɨ/. desdém is at rank #29,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɨʒ.ˈdɐ̃j̃/.
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 29832, this pair ranks #38,722 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of desde vs desdém
Shared letters: des. Private to "desde": -. Private to "desdém": mé.
"desde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "desdém" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- desde ← ddesde · dedse · desdde · desed · dessde · dsede · edsde
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "desde" for "desdém" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "desde" or "desdém" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "desde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "desdém" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,722 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desde" and "desdém" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decade vs desde". 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 #38,722 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.