devovsdexConfusable pair

Quick tell: devo is a adjective, dex is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#39,776
“devo” frequency rank
#20,608
“dex” frequency rank
60384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devo dex
Definition Devastated. An order or factor of ten.

Letter map: devo vs dex

Shared letters muted; letters that set devo and dex apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
devo
3 ch
dex

Part-of-speech tell for devo / dex

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: devo is anadjective and dexanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devo is recorded at frequency rank #39,776, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛvoʊ/. dex is at rank #20,608, tagged as anoun.

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 60384, this pair ranks #100,489 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of devo vs dex

Shared letters: de. Private to "devo": ov. Private to "dex": x.

"devo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dex" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devoddevo · deov · devvo · dveo · edvo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "devo" for "dex" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devo" is an adjective and "dex" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "devo" or "dex" show up more?
"dex" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,608 in our English list, against #39,776 for "devo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "devo" and "dex".

  • Full dictionary entry for "devo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dex" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,489 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devo" and "dex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Devito vs devo". 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 #100,489 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