devovsdodoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#39,776
“devo” frequency rank
#33,624
“dodo” frequency rank
73400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devo dodo
Definition Devastated. A large, flightless bird, †Raphus cucullatus, related to the pigeon, that is now extinct (since the 1600s) and was native to Mauritius.

Where the eye mixes devo and dodo

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

4 ch
devo
4 ch
dodo

Why the eye confuses devo with dodo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devo is /ˈdɛvoʊ/ while dodo is /ˈdəʊdəʊ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73400, 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/. dodo is at rank #33,624, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdəʊdəʊ/.

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 73400, this pair ranks #39,769 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of devo vs dodo

Shared letters: do. Private to "devo": ev. Private to "dodo": -.

"devo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dodo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devoddevo · deov · devvo · dveo · edvo
  • dododdodo · ddoo · doddo · dood · oddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devo" and "dodo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devo" is an adjective and "dodo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "devo" or "dodo" show up more?
"dodo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,624 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "devo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dodo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,769 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devo" and "dodo" 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 #39,769 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