DeliavsdevilWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Delia” and “devil” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,117
“Delia” frequency rank
#4,296
“devil” frequency rank
31413
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Delia devil
Definition A female given name from Ancient Greek. The chief devil; Satan.

Where the eye mixes Delia and devil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Delia
5 ch
devil

Why the eye confuses Delia with devil

A purely visual mix-up. Delia (/ˈdiːlɪə/) and devil (/ˈdɛvəl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Delia is recorded at frequency rank #27,117, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈdiːlɪə/. devil is at rank #4,296, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈdɛvəl/.

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 31413, this pair ranks #346,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Delia vs devil

Shared letters: deil. Private to "Delia": a. Private to "devil": v.

"Delia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "devil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Deliaddelia · deila · delai · dellia · dleia · edlia
  • devilddevil · deivl · devill · devli · devvil · dveil · edvil

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Delia" and "devil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdiːlɪə/ versus /ˈdɛvəl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Delia" or "devil"?
"devil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,296 in our English list, against #27,117 for "Delia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Delia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Delia" and "devil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dalia vs Delia". 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 #346,353 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list