delvingvsDevineConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#37,881
“delving” frequency rank
#27,806
“Devine” frequency rank
65687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delving Devine
Definition present participle and gerund of delve A surname from Irish.

Letter map: delving vs Devine

Shared letters muted; letters that set delving and Devine apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
delving
6 ch
Devine

Role in the sentence - delving and Devine

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delving is averb and Devineaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delving is recorded at frequency rank #37,881, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdɛlvɪŋ/. 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 65687, this pair ranks #71,537 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delving vs Devine

Shared letters: deinv. Private to "delving": gl. Private to "Devine": -.

"delving" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Devine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delvingddelving · delivng · dellving · delvign · delvingg · delvinng · delvnig · delvving
  • Devineddevine · deivne · devien · devinne · devnie · devvine · dveine · edvine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "delving" and "Devine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delving" is a verb and "Devine" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "delving" or "Devine" show up more?
"Devine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,806 in our English list, against #37,881 for "delving". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "delving" and "Devine".

  • Full dictionary entry for "delving" 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 #71,537 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delving" and "Devine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deeming vs delving". 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 #71,537 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