DevonvsDixonTell them apart

Which to use

“Devon” and “Dixon” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,033
“Devon” frequency rank
#10,682
“Dixon” frequency rank
19715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Devon Dixon
Definition A county of England bordered by Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. A northern English surname originating as a patronymic.

Where the eye mixes Devon and Dixon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Devon
5 ch
Dixon

Visual trap between Devon and Dixon

A purely visual mix-up. Devon (/ˈdɛv.ən/) and Dixon (/ˈdɪksən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19715, 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/. Dixon is at rank #10,682, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈdɪksən/.

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 19715, this pair ranks #436,227 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Devon vs Dixon

Shared letters: dno. Private to "Devon": ev. Private to "Dixon": ix.

"Devon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Dixon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Devonddevon · deovn · devno · devonn · devvon · dveon · edvon
  • Dixonddixon · dioxn · dixno · dixonn · dixxon · dxion · idxon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Devon" for "Dixon" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɛv.ən/ versus /ˈdɪksən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Devon" or "Dixon"?
"Devon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,033 in our English list, against #10,682 for "Dixon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Devon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dixon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,227 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Devon" and "Dixon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dixon vs doon". 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 #436,227 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