devivsdewyTell them apart

Quick tell: devi is a noun, dewy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“devi” is a noun and “dewy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,397
“devi” frequency rank
#44,738
“dewy” frequency rank
71135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devi dewy
Definition A goddess in Vedic mythology, Hinduism and Buddhism. Covered by dew.

Where the eye mixes devi and dewy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
devi
4 ch
dewy

Look-alike desk: devi vs dewy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devi is /ˈdeɪvi/ while dewy is /ˈdjuː.i/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devi is recorded at frequency rank #26,397, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdeɪvi/. dewy is at rank #44,738, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdjuː.i/.

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 71135, this pair ranks #47,854 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of devi vs dewy

Shared letters: de. Private to "devi": iv. Private to "dewy": wy.

"devi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dewy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi
  • dewyddewy · dewwy · dewyy · deyw · dwey · edwy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "devi" and "dewy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devi" is a noun and "dewy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "devi" vs "dewy" - which ranks higher?
"devi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,397 in our English list, against #44,738 for "dewy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "devi" and "dewy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dewy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,854 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devi" and "dewy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derp vs dewy". 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 #47,854 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