Which to use
“desire” is a noun and “desse” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,556
- “desire” frequency rank
- #391
- “desse” frequency rank
- 32947
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desire | desse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | desejo | contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo esse: |
Where the eye mixes desire and desse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. desire runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against desse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: desire vs desse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desire is /dɪˈzaɪə/ while desse is /ˈde.sɨ/. 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 (noun vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desire is recorded at frequency rank #32,556, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈzaɪə/. desse is at rank #391, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.sɨ/.
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 32947, this pair ranks #34,702 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of desire vs desse
Shared letters: des. Private to "desire": ir. Private to "desse": -.
"desire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "desse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "desire" and "desse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "desire" or "desse"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "desire" and "desse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "desire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "desse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #34,702 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desire" and "desse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desire vs device". 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 #34,702 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.