DevonvsdevoteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Devon is a noun, devote is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Devon” is a noun and “devote” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,080
“Devon” frequency rank
#49,581
“devote” frequency rank
72661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Devon devote
Definition die vierte Formation des Paläozoikums von etwa 419,2 bis 358,9 Millionen Jahren Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs devot

Where the eye mixes Devon and devote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Devon
6 ch
devote

Why the eye confuses Devon with devote

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Devon is [deˈvoːn] while devote is [deˈvoːtə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Devon is recorded at frequency rank #23,080, classified as anoun, pronounced [deˈvoːn]. devote is at rank #49,581, tagged as anadj, pronounced [deˈvoːtə].

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 72661, this pair ranks #382,044 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Devon vs devote

Shared letters: deov. Private to "Devon": n. Private to "devote": t.

"Devon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "devote" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Devonddevon · deovn · devno · devonn · devvon · dveon · edvon
  • devoteddevote · deovte · devoet · devotte · devtoe · devvote · dveote · edvote

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Devon" for "devote" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Devon" is a noun and "devote" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Devon" or "devote"?
"Devon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,080 in our German list, against #49,581 for "devote". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Devon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,044 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Devon" and "devote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devot vs devote". 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 #382,044 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list