Which to use
“Devon” is a name and “devour” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,033
- “Devon” frequency rank
- #23,239
- “devour” frequency rank
- 32272
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Devon | devour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A county of England bordered by Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. | To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously. |
Where the eye mixes Devon and devour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Devon and devour
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Devon is /ˈdɛv.ən/ while devour is /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Devon is recorded at frequency rank #9,033, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈdɛv.ən/. devour is at rank #23,239, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/.
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 32272, this pair ranks #339,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Devon vs devour
Shared letters: deov. Private to "Devon": n. Private to "devour": ru.
"Devon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "devour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Devon" and "devour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Devon" vs "devour" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Devon" and "devour" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Devon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Devon" and "devour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devour vs dour". 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 #339,239 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.