devisingvsdividingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,018
“devising” frequency rank
#12,408
“dividing” frequency rank
46426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devising dividing
Definition the act of creating a plan or some object, especially a will Serving to divide or separate.

Letter map: devising vs dividing

Shared letters muted; letters that set devising and dividing apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
devising
8 ch
dividing

Grammar separator: devising vs dividing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: devising is anoun and dividinganadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devising is recorded at frequency rank #34,018, classified as anoun. dividing is at rank #12,408, tagged as anadj.

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 46426, this pair ranks #211,837 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of devising vs dividing

Shared letters: dginv. Private to "devising": es. Private to "dividing": -.

"devising" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "dividing" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devisingddevising · deivsing · deviisng · devisign · devisingg · devisinng · devisnig · devissing
  • dividingddividing · diivding · divdiing · dividding · dividign · dividingg · dividinng · dividnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devising" and "dividing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devising" is a noun and "dividing" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "devising" or "dividing"?
"dividing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,408 in our English list, against #34,018 for "devising". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "devising" and "dividing". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devising" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dividing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,837 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devising" and "dividing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desiring vs devising". 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 #211,837 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