DellevsdelvesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Delle is a name, delves is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Delle” is a name and “delves” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,880
“Delle” frequency rank
#41,077
“delves” frequency rank
78957
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Delle delves
Definition A commune in Territoire de Belfort department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, on the border with Switzerland. third-person singular simple present indicative of delve

Letter map: Delle vs delves

Shared letters muted; letters that set Delle and delves apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Delle runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against delves's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Delle
6 ch
delves

Grammar separator: Delle vs delves

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Delle is aname and delvesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Delle is recorded at frequency rank #37,880, classified as aname. delves is at rank #41,077, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɛlvz/.

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 78957, this pair ranks #23,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Delle vs delves

Shared letters: del. Private to "Delle": -. Private to "delves": sv.

"Delle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "delves" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Delleddelle · dele · delel · dlele · edlle
  • delvesddelves · delevs · dellves · delvess · delvse · delvves · devles · dleves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Delle" for "delves" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Delle" is a name and "delves" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Delle" vs "delves" - which ranks higher?
"Delle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,880 in our English list, against #41,077 for "delves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Delle" vs "delves" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Delle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Delle" and "delves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delved vs delves". 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 #23,332 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