Which to use
“deva” and “duma” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,208
- “deva” frequency rank
- #30,013
- “duma” frequency rank
- 70221
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deva | duma |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A god in Vedic mythology, Hinduism and Buddhism. | A Russian legislative assembly such as the historical duma of the Russian Empire or the modern lower house of the Federal Assembly (the Russian national parliament). |
Where the eye mixes deva and duma
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. deva and duma follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between deva and duma
A purely visual mix-up. deva (/ˈdeɪvə/) and duma (/ˈdumə/) 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 70221, 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/. duma is at rank #30,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdumə/.
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 70221, this pair ranks #51,400 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of deva vs duma
Shared letters: ad. Private to "deva": ev. Private to "duma": mu.
"deva" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "duma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "deva" and "duma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "deva" or "duma"?
What to do next
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 "duma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,400 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deva" and "duma" 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 #51,400 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.