Which to use
“defile” is a verb and “Devine” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,153
- “defile” frequency rank
- #27,806
- “Devine” frequency rank
- 71959
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defile | Devine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil. | A surname from Irish. |
Letter map: defile vs Devine
Shared letters muted; letters that set defile and Devine apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for defile / Devine
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: defile is averb and Devineaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71959, 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/. Devine is at rank #27,806, tagged as aname.
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 71959, this pair ranks #44,753 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of defile vs Devine
Shared letters: dei. Private to "defile": fl. Private to "Devine": nv.
"defile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "Devine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "defile" for "Devine" ever safe?
Frequency check: "defile" vs "Devine" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "defile" vs "Devine" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "defile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Devine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,753 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defile" and "Devine" 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 #44,753 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.