Which to use
“defile” is a verb and “devils” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,153
- “defile” frequency rank
- #9,734
- “devils” frequency rank
- 53887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defile | devils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil. | plural of devil |
Where the eye mixes defile and devils
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses defile with devils
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: defile is /dɪˈfaɪl/ while devils is /ˈdɛvl̩z/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defile is recorded at frequency rank #44,153, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈfaɪl/. devils is at rank #9,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛvl̩z/.
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 53887, this pair ranks #145,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of defile vs devils
Shared letters: deil. Private to "defile": f. Private to "devils": sv.
"defile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "devils" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "defile" for "devils" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "defile" or "devils" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "defile" and "devils" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "defile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defile" and "devils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defile vs defiled". 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 #145,380 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.