Which to use
“defining” is an adjective and “devising” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,554
- “defining” frequency rank
- #34,018
- “devising” frequency rank
- 41572
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defining | devising |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Serving to define or distinguish. | the act of creating a plan or some object, especially a will |
Letter map: defining vs devising
Shared letters muted; letters that set defining and devising apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for defining / devising
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: defining is anadjective and devisinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defining is recorded at frequency rank #7,554, classified as anadj. devising is at rank #34,018, tagged as anoun.
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 41572, this pair ranks #257,086 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of defining vs devising
Shared letters: degin. Private to "defining": f. Private to "devising": sv.
"defining" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "devising" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "defining" and "devising" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "defining" or "devising" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "defining" vs "devising" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "defining" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devising" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #257,086 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defining" and "devising" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desiring vs devising". 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 #257,086 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.