Which to use
“deva” and “dey” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,208
- “deva” frequency rank
- #26,753
- “dey” frequency rank
- 66961
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deva | dey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A god in Vedic mythology, Hinduism and Buddhism. | A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid. |
Where the eye mixes deva and dey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between deva and dey
A purely visual mix-up. deva (/ˈdeɪvə/) and dey (/deɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deva is recorded at frequency rank #40,208, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdeɪvə/. dey is at rank #26,753, tagged as anoun, pronounced /deɪ/.
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 66961, this pair ranks #65,574 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of deva vs dey
Shared letters: de. Private to "deva": av. Private to "dey": y.
"deva" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dey" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- deva ← ddeva · deav · devva · dvea · edva
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "deva" and "dey" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "deva" vs "dey" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "deva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,574 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deva" and "dey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derp vs deva". 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 #65,574 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.