If we could tell the two d's apart, and the three e's apart, and the word were written like this: decrEᕮD then the answer would be 7! = 5040 However if we take a random permutation of that, say cᕮDerdE There are 3! ways to arrange the ᕮ, e, and E within that permutation, and every other permutation of decrEᕮD is the same way, so that means that the 7! or 5040 counts the same permutation 3! of 6 times too many, so we must divide by 3! or 6. But there are also 2! ways the D and d can be arranged, so we must also divide by 2!, since we cannot tell the D from the d when they are both small d's. Therefore the number of distinguishable ways when all the e's look alike and both the d's look alike, is given by= = = 420 Edwin